It's that time of year again, when we all get the chance to hit the reset button on life and commit to those personal improvement projects we're totes gonna stick to for the next 12-months (but let's face it, we probably won't). Frist though, we've got a choice to make: which new year's resolutions should we embrace this year? Decisions, decisions.
There's the obvious perennial favourites of course: join the gym; go twice; pay the membership fees for the rest of the year while telling yourself, 'I'll deffo go next week.' Give up the grog; have a shitty first day back at work because of your back-to-school blues and forgetting the password for your computer; immediately fall off the wagon by necking a bottle of Savvy-B to cheer yourself up. Buy a juicer so you can go on a "cleanse"; realise that kale and wheatgrass smoothies are utterly disgusting; order Dominos because you can't be arsed to cook.
So, let's just call bullshit on those options and look elsewhere for resolution inspiration. And it just so happens that there's a very timely muse: Tash Sultana. At her December Margaret Court Arena appearance, where she drew a whopping crowd that smashed the venue's attendance records, the insanely talented musician used her stage time to offer a bit of wisdom on that favourite Aussie pastime, discrimination, with a pointed nod to the outspoken bigotry of the stadium's namesake:
"The music doesn't stop for Margaret Court, that's for sure... I don't really have too much of an opinion on someone until I think they're a dickhead but, hey! Get up with the times, fucking hell! 'Cause there's seven and a half thousand people here and I don't think she's stopped any of this from happening."
Then, beautifully condensed into three simple rules, Sultana delivered the maxims I'll be sticking by in 2018: "Number one, if you're a homophobe: you can get the fuck out of my gig. Number two, if you're a racist: get the fuck out of my gig. And number three, if you're transphobic: get the fuck outta my gig!"
So there you have it. In 2018, I am resolved to keep prejudice, of every form, the fuck outta my gig. Let's call out the hate and bile and misinformation that blighted 2017 with postal surveys, sexual abuse bombshells, and political point-scoring. Let's show an absolute and unrelenting intolerance of the intolerant. And let's keep every hint of discrimination and degradation the fuck out of this gig.
