By Charlene Macaulay
A young man in his mid-20s collapses and dies while playing in a reserves football match in the Central Highlands League. At a ground many kilometres away, a highly paid professional footballer, 22, ruptures the ACL tendon in his knee for the third time. One is a life-ending tragedy, one is a career-threatening injury.
Members of the Sudanese community speak out about their fears for their safety at a rally in Melbourne deemed only newsworthy enough for a page 10 story and no picture in a major daily. Yet an armed gang of African appearance robs a store and it is front page news, with pixelated images, and television news, with CCTV footage and witness accounts.
Our world is a little out of kilter, don’t you think? Or at least the reporting of it is. While Matt Scharenberg’s knee injury is devastating, he got to go home after the game, something Lachie Poulter – the 25-year-old Dunnstown reserves player – couldn’t do.
Fear in the suburbs about gang violence is real, and so is the fear mongering being fuelled by an insatiable media. There is a lot of talk about our multicultural community inclusiveness, but is that just lip service until it lands on our back door? And it is on our back door, with much of the focus centring on Tarneit and Truganina.
Many media commentators use this issue as a platform for their own agendas, as do numerous politicians. Both have a tendency to offer little in terms of solutions. In many ways, it suits both their purposes if the problem is not solved.
Perspective seems to have been lost as a barometer of importance, especially when it comes to self-importance. A recent Facebook post sums it up. When acknowledging the anniversary of a friend’s passing, the person wrote: “It happened on my birthday and it was embargoed so I could not talk about it for two hours.” Nary a mention of the horrible accident that took place or of a life cut horribly short.
Spare a thought for the Poulter family, still coming to grips with the death of Lachie. That should give us all some perspective.
