Dating : Social Change Text By: Olive

The small Western Sydney suburb of Cranebrook was once an average neighbourhood, however, over the years had come to look like a warzone and a town split down the middle by a wall that has segregated the population. One one side, the upper class, people of great wealth, and on the other side, the lower class, the downtrodden members of society, living in housing commission. The upper class viewing “them” as they say, as the scum of the Earth and an embarrassment to society. The lower class purely just want to be understood and given a chance. The following is an extract from a diary found from the time of segregation. I was walking past the wall today on my way home as a i always do, and the guards would look upon me with a cold icy stare, as they tightened their grip on their guns, just waiting for me to make one step out of place. It made me wonder if the guards on the other side had the same reaction to people coming too close. Probably not, after all the wall was put up to “protect them” from us. We were seen as too vile to live amongst them and now we’re not given a chance to change, we’ll I guess there’s the local school where if you do well you’re invited to attend school on the other side, but most decline as it would result in them never seeing their families again. I dream of one day being able to kick down that wall, one day. I was sitting around my house with my friends a couple of days later and as I looked out my window at that humongous wall I said “don’t you ever feel that life would be better without the wall”? One of my friends replied “nah, we don’t want those upper class know it alls hangin’ ‘ round us”. Then I thought to myself what if all of this is based off of false accusations. The reason why the wall went up was because they thought we were a danger to their society, but all we really want is a chance and to be understood. Since then we’ve been taught to see them as upper class snobs, which in turn has made us seem like a danger to their society. What if both sides were able to see past these lives and witness the truth… what then? The next day I was walking past the wall again and decided to keep walking further than I have been before to the unguarded section. It was unguarded because no one lived down this end. I noticed there was a small gap in the wall, yet one that I may just be able to fit through. I just managed to squeeze through the wall and instantly saw the difference. Two story houses everywhere and a big shopping mall filled with happy people. I soon realised that I was bound to be caught due to the clothes I was wearing and my look, so I had to stay hidden. I was ensuring that I remained unseen as I observed this whole new way of life. These people weren’t “snobs” like I had heard them be called on my side. They had families that they cared for and there were friends on the street having fun, and I released both sides really weren’t that different. I looked over at a stage in the centre of the town and in a moment where I didn’t think too much I ran for the stage and grabbed the microphone. Slowly, I started to catch people’s eyes until I had the attention of everyone in the town. Then I spoke, “As you can clearly see I am from the other side, but before you persecute me I wanted to tell you how things are over there. Just like you, we have families who love and care for each other, friends we enjoy laughing and having fun with and we have kids who dream of doing something get one day. The only difference is that we don’t exactly have the same opportunities in terms of achieving our dreams. We have this wall to keep us apart when we should be working together, we are misunderstood but so are you, so please join the fight of your brothers and sisters on the other side to tear down this wall and to afford us the same chances as you, thank you for your time.” I then ran off my heart was pounding as the eyes watched me, I then quickly snuck back through the whole in the wall and was gone. A week later, I could hear a huge banging noise, I looked outside my bedroom window and a portion of the wall was missing, a few seconds later another loud bang and another portion of the wall was gone. I quickly ran out of my house towards the wall. It was being taken down by the guards. I asked one of them “what’s happening here?” He replied “ they had a vote on the other side whether or not the wall should stay up and they voted for it to be torn down. Kids will go to school together, people on both sides will have the same job opportunities and you will live amongst each other.” I then turned and walked away with a grin on my face as I thought it looks we can coexist, because we are really all the same.