Letter

In response to Bring these Australian children home, PM. They did not make their own beds

Do some mothers matter more than others?

Either everyone matters or no one matters. That sounds simple enough, but you wouldn’t know it from following the news.

For example, we have on the one hand Zionists in Israel committing murder on live-stream, and yet any criticism has to be carefully filtered to avoid the dreaded charge of antisemitism. With that obligatory filtering in mind, are there Australian citizens fighting for the IDF in Gaza? If there are, will they be welcomed home once they weary of killing Palestinians?

On the other hand we have Australian women and children being passed around like hot potatoes in Syria because no one wants to know them. This is primarily because of what their former partners and fathers allegedly once did. Did the stranded women and children even do any actual fighting or themselves commit any known crimes?

So what’s it to be? Does everyone matter, or do some matter more than others? Or perhaps “everyone” is too broad. What if we limit it to mothers. Do some mothers matter more than others?

— Hal Duell from Alice Springs