Hicksville

Well fancy….the people you bump into on the way to work. Runwalking through the Supreme Court forecourt on my way to work this morning, latte in hand, I ran into none other than the poster boy of the human rights/anti-war movement for the last five years: Mr David Hicks. I literally bumped right into him….latte went everywhere. I apologised and almost went to go "Gosh I know you…where do I know you from?" when it dawned on me who he was. I did the double take thing….which he must get all the time. He is quite little: probably about 168 cm in height and very unassuming. I looked at him and couldn't help but think, "Man there are 799,000.00 entries (I checked) about you on the internet including wikipedia, people have written plays about you, politicians have debated you in parliament, presidents and primeministers have discussed you, there are PHDs on you, lawyers have attended lectures about you, whole protests involving thousands of people have been organised in your honour"; the words David Hicks have been the personification of Australia's involvement in The War on Terror. And here he was in his sneakers and flanno jumper carrying a packet of Winnie Blues wearing my coffee. It was all very Aussie Aussie Oi! Oi!I gave him my serviette; he mopped his face and said "No worries mate...thanks," and took off. I watched him saunter across the forecourt, light his cigarette and wander up Macquarie Street. There went a man who allegedly was Australia's answer to Osama Bin Laden....it was kinder hard to believe.