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Meera Atkinson 
An act of courage is sometimes expressed in that shortest and simplest of words: no.
Unpack the issues...
I have made the decision not to run because my personal commitment to standing with those who are vulnerable and marginalised and the leadership positions I hold in the Uniting Church and ACOSS make it important to ensure that my actions do not leave any doubt about our commitment to human rights. This was the statement made in April this year by Lin Hatfield Dodds, national director of UnitingCare Australia, president of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS), and the Australian Capital Territory's Australian of the Year. Initially, Lin was excited about the invitation to carry the torch and readily agreed. “When I was a teenager I used to do lots of sprinting and was in an athletics club so I was stoked to be asked, because of that background but also because of what the flame stood for: hope and peace and nations coming together and striving for excellence. I felt honoured,” she says. “And a bit concerned about wearing Lycra,” she adds with a hearty laugh. The torch was to go through Canberra on a Thursday and Lin announced her withdrawal on the Monday evening. “I’d spent a month before then wrestling with the issue and getting less and less comfortable. I’d made a decision to run on the basis of the meaning of the torch, the fact that I feel when you’re in leadership roles you have a responsibility to say 'yes' to those things, because I think the Olympic movement is a terrific movement and because it was going to be a big community event." “My concerns weren’t just about Tibet, though that was how it was pitched in the media. For me it was about the general human rights climate in China — the international community was raising a lot of flags to do with human rights concerns around the Olympics. “I made the decision because I felt that, given my leadership roles in UnitingCare and the Uniting Church and ACOSS, I needed to be clear about where I stood in respect to human rights, to be clear that I and the organisations I represent are very pro human rights.” She admits it was a was a difficult decision but, having made it, Lin decided not to draw attention to it in the media but to quietly issue a statement. However, she soon found herself in the middle of media frenzy. “The media were looking for stories. I did SBS news and then it went into this huge firestorm for about 12 hours. Then at 3pm on the Tuesday I pulled the pin and went down the coast and that night I started getting calls from international media,” says Lin. Lin says, though her decision attracted some criticism, she experienced overwhelming support from right across Australia with people from across the Uniting Church thanking her for speaking for them.  “I think in the end if you’re going to be a person of faith and a leader, the key to both those things is engaging in reflective practice and trying to make sure the decisions you make and the actions you take are congruent with your core values. “It was an opportunity in a leadership role to be engaged in solidarity. I was conscious the whole time that I’m not being shot at in Tibet; I’m not a homeless person in Beijing getting moved off the streets. I’m a middle-class professional in Australia and the cost to me, professionally speaking, is not high at all. If those of us in privileged positions don’t stand for the things that matter, what’s the matter? There’s that quote that evil is what happens when innocent people stand by and do nothing.” Lin believes we’re all given opportunities to be cultural and ethos leaders. "If we say, as Christians, we want communities that are inclusive, that value diversity and celebrate everybody’s inherent dignity and humanity, what are we each doing every day in our communities to birth those communities and hold them?”
Unpack the issues...Discussion points - What daily decisions could you make that would bring into being God’s movement in the world?
- Who do you measure yourself against — who is your hero, who inspires you?
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