I am humanity – the change starts with me. Does it start with you? A fight for civil liberties

Please watch and share this video.  This is one of the best leadership speeches I have ever heard in my lifetime. Spoken by Katrina, a wife and mother from the Logan community. Please take everything in Katrina is saying and show support against the VLAD laws (aka ‘the bikie laws’) and the importance of standing up and uniting

“These people do not care about us. We need to care about us”  (Katrina Soakai)

For those who don’t have sound enabled or for those with a disability who need an alternative to video – I’ve typed the full transcript below:

Transcript of speech by Katrina Soakai, 13 Dec 2013

Hi, my name is Katrina. I’m a mother of five. I’m 36 years old, not quite 37, that is next week. But I’m basically a citizen of Australia, I was born at the Mater Brisbane Hospital. I’m not a doctor, I’m not a teacher, I’m a human being and as a human being…I’m imploring… that all of you stand up on the 26th of January, 2014, to stand up for humanity.  So it doesn’t matter if you are black, white, orange, purple, grey. It doesn’t matter if you are Catholic, it doesn’t matter if you are Muslim. It doesn’t matter if you believe in Jehovah, or like me you believe in the universe. Our beliefs and our colour have nothing to do with this.

This is for our children, this is for our future. and basically, these laws that have hit QLD; I know according to mainstream media they’re trying to protect us from the bikies. But here is the reality, this law was not designed just for the bikies.  If I decide on a Friday afternoon, to catch up with two or more friends at a hotel, and I don’t ask credentials of my friends past. I don’t ask them if they are…Do they know anyone in a bikie club? Do they know anyone in any club? Does anyone in that club have criminal history of association with a bikie club?  Do you normally ask your friends these questions? Well as of today and the day that law was brought in, we must. For if we don’t. Me, for just associating with people, could land in jail for six months….Six months.

Now you read that law and the age of technology, ignorance is a choice.  I don’t care whether you believe that fluoride is good or bad. I don’t care if you believe in ChemTrails. I just want you to believe in yourselves and know you are here for a very short time.

And they try and cloud us with all these gadgets and gizmos and Justin Biebers and Mylie Cyrus’s, so we don’t care about each other, so we stand divided, that we do not unite. That we do not take our power back. If it is bad for us….oh and it is bad for us. Six families in my world have not had hot water for over a year. They’re not junkies, they don’t put their money in the pubs, they are hard working people, but there is not enough to go around.  But instead of talking to each other we are ashamed, and we hold that in. Therefore we don’t link. Well  I for one stopped doing that over two years ago and I’m linking and my world today is empowering and it’s honest and it’s truthful.

For my animal lovers out there. Thank you for the job you’re doing. Your voice needs to be heard, but this system is strangling you too. These people do not care about us. We must care about us.

Bullying…our children watch it with us. Our children watch it when we walk through the shopping centre. We can’t even smile at each other? I walk through the school, not a smile… and our children are expected to pay that ripple affect on in their school yard?  I do not want to bury another child… before their time. Cos you see people, if there is no hope for us, there is no hope for our children.

26th January, 2014 is time for us to unite and show whoever is running this world and do not be naive and think it is just our government, because it’s not. Like I said before it’s time to unite. Black, white, yellow, orange, shaved head, no hair. I don’t care what your eyes look like. We’ve all got a heart beat. We all must stand up for us. For US.  We are here… this (shows small space with fingers)… this….this long.

I am emotional, because I see the bigger picture. I don’t want to leave my country…but I will.  I don’t want to leave Logan, but I will.  I need everyone to stand up and come in, and I don’t care what you believe in, just stand together.  I am so happy to announce….history in the making people.  Our Indigenous brothers and sisters, who first hand knows of the injustices our world can deliver and our country can deliver, are standing with us, uniting. It is not a colour issue, it is not a land issue, it is a humanity issue.  So I implore you, share this video, share your world, show it to your world. Our children and their children, need us to get off our butts and start caring. Do not let, the system, no matter what, whether it is health, or education, don’t let it hit you in the head, before you start having empathy. Cos that is what I watch. I watch that my world doesn’t care. “Oh well, it doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t affect me”. Don’t let the universe bring that to you people, then you may get empathy. Don’t lose your nephew or your niece or God forbid your child to bullying. We must stop bullying each other and that is a fact. Blame the world, blame the system, but we need to look at us and start looking at the person, not the story.  But that is another video, this video is about us uniting.

26th January, 2014. These laws are one of the issues. There are going to be plenty of rallies and protests at all different areas. But 26th January, 2014, we are uniting, we are going to stand together and colour, race, religion has nothing to do with it.

We got one thing in common people, we all have a heart and it beats and we all bleed. We’re not different. Its our world that makes us different. Its the mainstream media that creates fear, that keeps us separated. Like I said before, in this age of intelligence, ignorance is a choice. Facebook was not the only reason, the internet was created.

Our ancestors were not so lucky. There were people that fought for us a long time ago and if they didn’t get up and they didn’t fight, like Malcolm X. Like so many people that fought for black rights, I would not be with my husband today. I would not have the five beautiful children I have today, if they did not get up and fight for that. So yeh…I am a human and I will be there that day. I’m a mother and I will be there that day. I am a member of this community and I will be there that day.

But most of all, I am humanity and the change starts with me. Does it start with you?  Love…always. [end]

Katrina Soakai