Never forget, the best way to avenge the wrongs of the past is by seizing control of the future!
IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER MARAMA DAVIDSON’S impassioned appeal to
Metiria Turei’s devastated supporters, that the “Avenge Metiria” meme made its
first appearance. No one’s entirely sure who started it, but pretty soon it was
all over social media. Then the ideas for action started pouring in to the
Green Party HQ. Though expressed in a multitude of ways, the message was clear:
“If Metiria is to be avenged, then we have to get her supporters to the polls!”
Over the next few days, dozens of IamMetiria volunteers
began texting their friends and neighbours with news that “Avenge Metiria”
meetings were being organised around the country. Posters featuring Metiria’s
image started going up all over New Zealand saying, simply: “Don’t mourn –
organise!”
The meetings attracted hundreds of people. Among their very
first decisions was a vote to ban the mainstream news media from all further
“Avenge Metiria” gatherings. Some wag even sent a message to the television
networks: “Stay healthy, guys – stay away!” Gang members offered to provide
“security” for the rapidly growing movement’s leading organisers.
When Marama Davidson announced that the Greens would accept
an invitation to address the rally being organised by the South Auckland
chapter of “Avenge Metiria”, it soon became clear that the turnout would be
huge. And when word spread that Metiria, herself, would be speaking, the
organisers were forced to secure a bigger venue – a much bigger venue.
Metiria’s speech, carried live on social media, was electrifying.
Freed from the constraints of her co-leadership role and with nothing left to
lose, she spoke from the heart about the need for those who had been silenced
by poverty and bureaucratic oppression to find their voices. To take on the
system with the objects it feared the most – their votes.
“Don’t do it to avenge me!”, she cried, “Do it to avenge
yourselves! Do it to avenge all those New Zealanders whom the greedy and the
cruel have driven into the shadow world of poverty and despair. For the ones still
living in the dark. For these lost souls, I am asking every one of you here
tonight to become a light-giver. Never forget, the best way to avenge the
wrongs of the past is by seizing control of the future!”
On Election Night 2017, puzzled political scientists
reported a huge increase in voter turnout. For the first time since 1984, more
than 90 percent of registered voters had cast a ballot. Equally confounded were
the mainstream news media’s leading political journalists. All of whom were at
a loss to explain the unprecedented level of support for the Green Party.
“The polls gave us no inkling of this”, complained one
baffled pundit. “We simply had no idea it was happening!”
As it became clear that Labour and the Greens were
racking-up an historic landslide victory, a new meme mysteriously appeared on
social media – and almost instantly went viral.
“Metiria Is Avenged!”
This essay was
originally posted on The Daily Blog
of Thursday, 10 August 2017.
