#IllRideWithYou

Yesterday saw one of the darkest days in Australian history in recent years. It saw the siege of the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place Sydney. A place central to the large city of Sydney and close to Government Authorities and broadcasters. It was also very close to famous landmarks like the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/national/siege-at-sydneys-lindt-cafe-martin-place-long-identified-as-a-terrorist-target/story-fncynjr2-1227156454320

It was something that captured the attention of all Australians. This siege, done in the name of ISIS, finally came to an end just after 2 this morning, more than 16 hours after the siege began. This end came at the cost of three lives. One was the gunman himself who was holding the hostages. The other two were poor innocent people who had just gone out for a quick bite at the cafe. They were the 38 year-old barrister and mother of three Katrina Dawson and the 34 year-old manager of the cafe, Tori Johnson. Our thoughts go out to their friends and families at this troubled time.

[from top] Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson 

Source: http://www.news.com.au/national/martin-place-siege-victims-were-katrina-dawson-38-and-tori-johnson-34/story-fncynjr2-1227157794423

However, if there was one thing good to come out of this it was the sense of community that came out of it all. Despite the fact that the act was done in the name of ISIS many Australians stood up for the Muslims they knew had no support for the group who were destroying their reputation. In the face of adversity and immense suffering our country pulled together despite the ISIS plan to separate the Muslims from the rest of Australia. This was embodied through the hashtag "I'll ride with you".

Source: http://descrier.co.uk/news/world/illridewithyou-australians-show-solidarity-sydneys-muslims-siege/

It continues to trend on Twitter with thousands of people showing their support for their fellow Muslim Australians. It is a promise to show solidarity when you are with a Muslim, or anyone, and they could fear racial backlash from connotations regarding their faith. The following picture shows the Facebook post that started it all by Rachael Jacobs.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/martin-place-siege-illridewithyou-hashtag-goes-viral-20141216-127rm1.html

Since this many posts have come to show their supports and most Australians would have found at least one mention of the hashtag on Facebook or Twitter. This response to the attack by a person on Facebook which has since been shared by many people and pages sums up Australia's response to this incident perfectly.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/DanAndMaz

Nothing more needs to be said. See you soon.

Causing Offence

Causing offence is really easy today. Hell, it's highly probably causing offence right now (especially since I used the 'h' word, you know 'high'). People just need to toughen up (I said 'up', woops) sometimes because they are taking offence to everything. There are, of course, some things that are genuinely offensive and I can see how they get offended. Then there are the people who just go through sites like Facebook looking to be offended. Finally, there are just those people who get offended at everything and it is easier not to say anything so that people don't get offended.

First, the things that are clearly offensive. These are the posts, images and pages going around the internet that are clearly offensive and intended to cause offense. These can be anti-muslim (or any other religion, that was just the easiest term to put "anti-" in front of), sexist or any other offensive thing. Sometimes they are about religion or views but they can often be on interests (such as film, entertainment or games). These can be in the form of a direct attack (like "Harry Potter is crap and it's fans are stupid") or a subtle attack (like "The new union strikes are really stupid, like the boy with the lightning scar"). Sometimes these can offend a large number of people or it just offends a particular group (such as the Harry Potter Fandom).

Now there are the people that seem to go looking to be offended. These are the people who go on Facebook and look through pages that are going to offend them. So if they were a fan of Harry Potter they would go searching through anti-Harry Potter (I chose Harry Potter because it is the 11th most liked page on Facebook [as of January 2013] and shouldn't offend as many people as if I chose the KKK as an example) Pages and would then get really offended and be one of those people who comment on the post to share their anger at it. It is just a bit weird that people go looking to get offended and then complain because they are. It's just a little infuriating some times when you read these comments (besides the fact that they cause an interesting 'debate') and it just takes up some space in the comments section.

Finally there are those things that shouldn't offend anyone but somehow do. I saw a post that was literally "..." and then people in the comments section were having a giant debate about how offensive it was and I just kept scrolling before I lost my mind. Then there was a person who made a post about how the sky was a deep blue and then someone in the comments had a full-out argument saying something about someone dying and it being related to the colour blue (a person hadn't actually died and it was just an analogy, a stupid one). Again, sometimes I'm amazed I haven't lost my faith in humanity yet. I have learnt that some people are incredibly stupid and it just goes to show that even the most innocent of posts can be offensive in some way. Some people just seem to love being offended and sometimes it is just way too easy to cause offence. Some people just need to learn some resilience.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!