Your Greatest Gift, Freedom Of Choice

Cafe Locked Out

A person he respected once read one of Brian's poems and told him that he could be a great poet. Over those years, where our stories travelled the same tracks, Brian told me that story—perhaps half a dozen times. He was in his late fifties then and would end up losing his job as a tram driver for breaking his tram’s computer screen. I remember being shown the unbreakable plexiglass, embossed with a print of his fist.

Michael writing this piece in Prince Charles Hospital, whilst receiving IV antibiotics to tackle a staph infection in his chest wound following a triple bypass.

The person he had respected so much—her voice still haunted him—was his grade three teacher. He never showed me that poem, or any poetry he’d written since.

For the few times they made the evening news, the people looked like puppets whose strings had been cut by death. Even though they’d reached the end of their scripts, our Government had purchased their contracts for free—for they were only refugees—and was using the overhead visuals of their final dance, where, face-down in the waves off Christmas Island, the ocean gracefully drained their brave and desperate souls of the last of their dreams.

But we did not dump these people here, nor did we forbid Brian from picking up a pen. These were choices they made themselves. But unlike Brian, the souls who almost reached our shores had chosen to take these terrible risks—not so they could throw another shrimp on the barbie—but because they wanted their children, whom some had brought with them, to have the freedom to follow their dreams.

This was a freedom gifted to us all by the gods, but in their country, the powerful had used poverty and fear to cut their wings at birth. Whereas Australia had grown rich by offering its citizens the freedom to realise their dreams.

But then why didn’t Brian, who was not only born here, but who was encouraged—by the state—to explore one of his gifts?

Choice.

Your life’s unique architect: Freedom of Choice.

For all our sacred religious texts and philosophies, for all of us who have ever existed, we don’t have a shred of physical evidence that can prove where we came from, or where we are going.
All we have is faith—and the seed of all our individual faiths is Freedom of Choice.

Ironically, most religions state that God wants you to fear Him, obey Him—and yet you have been created, by Him, with the power to choose to believe that He does not, and never has, existed.
So why would a God who hardwired that much freedom into your soul demand that you fear and obey Him?

Close your eyes after this, and imagine a sideways view of the map of your life—a brief, one-way map.
Below you: the bottomless darkness from whence you came, which contains the mysteries you brought with you, and those you're still gathering.
Above you: the infinite universe of possibilities that tempt us to fly with the sirens we affectionately call dreams.

So much to explore—both below and above—and yet many of us strive only to bounce across the surface of our brief horizons, as though we had been skimmed across life by an indolent god.

Why?

Simple: Choice.
Freedom of Choice.

Covid was the first time, in many of our lives—especially if you were in Victoria—when we all experienced what it was like to have this great freedom challenged.
This is why the anti-lockdown protesters, the so-called anti-vaxxers, were so brave.
This group of strangers, from every demographic, decided to challenge those who would attempt to curtail this freedom. This rising tribe—who were prepared to, and did, pay the price—from rubber bullets, to fines, to job losses, to even being kicked out of family groups—simply to retain their right to choose their own path.

Our country has been, and is still being, violated, as corporations and governments continue to try to control your Freedom of Choice through fear.
They cancel artists, such as myself.
They sack journalists, like David Southwell, who worked for the Daily Mail.
They attempt to deregister doctors, like Dr. My-Le Trinh, for deciding to live up to her Hippocratic Oath—even though AHPRA has outlawed that.

We met a migrant from Africa who worked in government. He told us he'd received a memo threatening his job if he dared to bring up Israel or Palestine in the workplace.

And now, we have the eSafety Commissioner, whose job it is to stifle debate by censoring social media—the chessboard of culture.

And as has happened all through history, these spreading controls will lead people to choose silence, to choose compliance—where, feeling as though they don't have enough worth to speak, they’ll instead skim their way through life.

Trouble is, a suppressed population will find it very difficult to continue to prosper—as Australia, as a whole, has prospered until now.

No—currently, we are a generation actively choosing, via Freedom of Choice, to stay silent, as we—and the powerful—clip the wings of the next generation: our children.
We crush them with unserviceable debt.
We shame them through “Welcome to Country” ceremonies, where they are repeatedly reminded that they are not true Australians, but merely the latest offspring of an occupying force.
And then there’s toxic masculinity, and etc., etc.—anything to manipulate the people into freely making the choices the powerful want them to choose.

Another term for this is: a slave.
But we are not true slaves—our enslavement is voluntary.

And wherever we head, as a culture, will be freely decided by us.
If the majority choose to pack away their dreams, and continue to unquestioningly do as they’re told, then we will be known as the architects of whatever Australia becomes.

Or—imagine, just for a moment, the kind of future we could all have, and our children could have, if together, we chose to head towards a culture where we not only encouraged people to courageously exercise their God-given Freedom of Choice,
but built one that was prosperous again—where, freed from the confinement of fears,
those seeds of greatness, we are all born with, were encouraged to blossom into an abundant forest called Freedom, that was more than capable of nurturing us all.

Michael Gray Griffith

29/04/25

If you would like to help Cafe Locked Out survive this difficult time, Rohana Hayes has set up an online fundraiser. All contributions go directly towards keeping our community connected, online and back on the road ASAP.

Here is the link