As a young woman on the streets of an Auckland few will admit exists or ever speak the realities of, and which I *very* seldom speak of, I was never safe, nor were the women around me. Not safe from the privileged, the underprivileged or the police.
1/
While politics merges with gang mentality and division creates two uniquely toxic and dangerous camps spooning themselves around a petrified and too-silent, barely acknowledged middle, I know only to cling to core principles that create a space where we can still speak at all
2/
In a world where acceptance from either camp requires an immoral complicity with violence and dehumanisation of the 'other', there is little left to place hope or believe in other than the pipe dream of demanding the reinforcement of the most fundamental of human rights
3/
As the nakedness of a violence propagated in the highest to the lowest echelons of society, and its virus-like spread, moves from being inter-generationally swept under the carpet to being impossible to ignore, my respect remains only with those able to withstand its allure
4/
Even in my contempt for those who serve only to help the divisions grow and the fractures deepen, I will fight for EVERYONE'S rights - to exist, to speak, to protest, even when I secretly wish that they would all just shut the fuck up, evolve & learn to live and let live.
5/5
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