OPINION In 1963, Bob Dylan "The Times They Are a-Changin'". The song became an anthem for change due to Dylan's brilliant writing. It just so happened to be released during one of the most volatile times in American history.
In the 1960s, American troops were fighting in Vietnam and the civilrights movement was in full swing. The movement saw African Americans and their allies seek to gain equal rights under the law.
Over the past 60-odd years, many of the world's societies have changed a great deal but, if you ask me, there's still plenty of change left to be had.
New Zealand is not the harmonious dreamland it often gets played up to be — there are a number of very serious issues that plague our nation.
Rotorua kuia Jenny Jones and her Tino Rangatiratanga flags. Photo / Ben Fraser
Those include family violence, sexual violence, racism, drug addiction, intergenerational poverty, homelessness and emergency housing.
Terrible things take place across the globe constantly and closer to home, in our cities, on our streets and, in some cases, right under our own noses.
It's up to you and me — everyone — to call out and stand up to injustices.
As this country knows all too well, there are evil people in this world who hate others because they're different from themselves.
I'd have thought life was too short to worry about someone else's sexuality, race, gender, what God they praise or whatever else people take offence to.
On Monday, historian Buddy Mikaere wrote about how New Zealand's approach to te reo Māori had changed.
As Bob Dylan once wrote, people better start swimming or they'll soon sink. Photo / Supplied
As children, Mikaere's parents' generation were beaten for speaking te reo at school and the language was heading towards extinction until a group of Māori university students took a petition to Parliament in 1972 seeking protection for the language. They got it.
I felt proud to be a Kiwi reading that, despite being a Pakeha who doesn't speak te reo.
The feeling quickly vanished, though, after we reported that Rotorua kuia Jenny Jones received an anonymous letter demanding she take down the the Tino Rangatiratanga flag she was flying at her Glenholme home.
The letter said: "Congradulations (sic), you have won the prize for the most disgusting property in Glenholme. Some of us have pride in our area. You need to step up to the mark. Take the flag down."
The 70-year-old didn't back down, though. Instead she put up two more Māori flags.
The world needs more Jenny Joneses, and their communities need to stand with them.
The views expressed in that letter are disgusting and have no place anywhere. They certainly are not representative of the way this country is evolving.
Our society is changing and people who aren't on board should check out that Dylan song. It's time for the haters and complainers to get over themselves.
