This referendum is dividing families

and dividing the nation. There has been physical violence. It is sending more than one person to the brink of suicide - and may yet result in that.

There was an article in yesterday's paper about one of the "no" camp and the way he has been referred to as a "coconut" - a very derogatory term meaning "brown on the outside and white on the inside".  That disgusts me - disgusts me far more than references to the Greens as being "watermelons" - green on the outside and red on the inside. 

There are differing opinions within my own family. This does not surprise me but we have not come to blows over it and there are even indications we may all come to the same view in the end.

Outside my own family I know others where the arguments have been so serious that people are no longer speaking to one another.  Views differ radically but the claim "you're racist" is being made too often.  Last week I listened to someone in tears as she said her daughter no longer speaks to her and refuses to let her see her grandchildren any more. "I was told, "you're racist Mum and I don't want the kids to have anything to do with you". I haven't seen them since Christmas and she just slams the phone down." 

Perhaps that is a more extreme reaction than many but it is just one of the many problems which have arisen.

Why, oh why, oh why couldn't the government have done the sensible thing? Why couldn't they have divided the question into two parts?  

If we had been asked to give recognition to the fact there were people here before white settlement I am certain there would have been an overwhelming "yes". It would have been obvious, so obvious. It would have been such a simple thing to do.

It is not that to which people are objecting. People should be able to speak up without fear of being ostracised and cut off from family and friends. They should not be treated with contempt in the media simply because they hold a different view from those who are leading a divisive campaign supported by the government of the day. 

I don't always agree with all my friends on all the issues they raise - but I do try to listen. That way I might learn something.