yesterday i took a day off, something i hardly ever do and thought i would go to the 'never gain means now' show of support for jews and israel in the centre of sydney. it was to highlight the fact most jews had been targeted by the left, the greens, the islamists and the media, not to mention the police. they felt unsafe in australia and were having to hide their identity, there had been several episodes of attacks. i have not been to any kind of demonstration or protest since i was a teenager and figured this is something i need to do, not just for myself but a community under siege and for a country that is completely misrepresented by it's enemies and the morons that believe everything they are fed by media. when it comes to minorities israel is a good example, when it comes to racism jews are another, in fact the truth is you can critique israel and the jews as much as you want, but to lie blatantly is a different story, and to hold it to a different standard is the definition of antisemitism, in my book at least. and that's the problem, isreal is held to a completely different standard than any other country on earth. 

a few truths, there is no apathied, gaza is not and has not been under occupation for nearly 20 years and gaza is not an open air prison (it has 5 star hotels and resorts) and israel has been supplying gaza with electricity and water for years free off charge because hamas blew up the infrastructure. but never let the truth get in the way of a good nazi. 

so i finish my chores and set off, at 10am thinking i will give myself plenty of time to get to the city, wander around and then attend the demo but as usual in this weird week, everything went wrong. the train i was on stopped over the hawksberry river and remained there for over an hour. it was meant to take me to central but some urgent track work was necessary before it could continue. eventually after over an hour it continued only to stop at the next station and announce it was terminating. 
the next train was an hour away and instead of going directly to central this one went the long way around, stopping at all these weird suburbs and using up the chunk of time i had left. eventually i arrived in sydney at exactly 3pm when the demo commenced. i had to sprint across a park to get there for 1520 where a number of people gathered, mostly christians, jews and persians. 

warren mundine made a great speech, jackie lambie added a typical barrage of her direct no-nonsense nonsense, fortunately i missed scott morrison's speech ( a man i can't stand )
i wandered through the crowd of about 8000 people, lots of flags and a very cool art instillation representing the murdered people, you could walk around, each human cut-out displaying some form of art. 
some christians sung a hymn with a rock band, it was a sort of gospel sounding and some maoris and pacific islanders all dressed in blue and white lined up to the right of the stage. 
i noticed a cute looking woman and we exchanged smiles but it was not really the place to flirt so i moved on, into the centre of the crowd and noticed a vast cross section of people from all over, but it was the persians that stood out most with their lion flags. i spoke to many, all saying how much they loved the jews and israel and that iran was under a dictator who would not let his population live freely. 
i didn't stick around, swallowed up as i left into the hordes of citizens out sunday night. i made my way to the japanese bookshop where i picked up brett easton ellis's 'lunar park' and then boarded another train for the return journey which itself was delayed for 30 mins. 

when i got home i had almost finished 'the shards' and although i fell asleep i remember thinking how much i had enjoyed reading it. wondering how it would conclude.
my last thoughts were on the week being so weird and challenging for me, i should have just taken the week off and stayed home. but it would be coming to an end soon, a new one, better.