Press Clippings 16

After dinner address,
National Youth Constitutional Convention, Matthew Albert
(National War Memorial, Canberra, 16 March 2005)

We are a privileged lot. Privileged by our freedom, our wealth and our education. With this good fortune, we are faced with a choice. We can flaunt our privilege or we can use it.

I call on you to use it.

On the grand scale, our privilege comes with heavy responsibility. We must work to ensure that not a single war, not a single battle, not even a single name need ever be etched on the walls of this building again.

And on a smaller scale we have an obligation simply to be aware. Awareness inevitably breeds compassion and compassion breeds action. Only with action can we bring about the change we idealise.

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