Tomorrow is a public holiday in Australia. It’s our summer and the last week before school starts. Tomorrow is the “last gasp” of a wet, Claytons summer Down Under.

Tomorrow is Australia Day.

And in anticipation radio programs and politicians are talking about…immigration. Why is it patriotism can so easily be tipped over into xenophobia? Since when does flying the flag equate to borderline racism? One article in Queensland’s The Courier Mail recently centred on how the Australian flag was being commandeered by hooligans sporting Southern Cross tattoos.

 Hooligan?

Yet one of the great cricket sports stars recently revealed his full back tattoo of the Southern Cross. And his inspiration was patriotism. Peter Siddle’s tattoo is impressive. I grew up with World War II veterans in my family. None of them had tattoos however it would never have been considered unpatriotic for sporting the US flag on their arm.

Patriot?

The concerns centre on people using their patriotism as rationale for disallowing change. Yet Australia was built by migrants. Other than the Aboriginal people, everyone else arrived by ship or plane. I am a new Australian and took up citizenship in 1995. I call Australia home and would never live elsewhere. Yet I believe it’s too good a country not to share. As we prosper we’ll need immigration to expand. And while I say this I’ll happily wave the flag.

As the film “Between the Flags” shows - it’s easy to get along, even if we have differences. The film answers the questions, “What if we threw a riot and no one came?”