by Graeme Cole

It doesn't take long for "God's country' to fall to new lows. Sydney's "Eden' has been on a down hill run for decades. And despite talk about policing, resources and pulling community leaders together to "work towards a solution", Cronulla's problems are far more deep seated.

Alcohol was and remains the Shire's and the nation's number one problem. Travel through the Shire on a Friday or Saturday night and you will see the behaviour. This is a story which doesn't make the headlines. It's what the Cronulla Chamber of Commerce speaks about in hushed tones until their shopfronts are damaged.

Living a life of leisure in the "Nulla is a right of passage for many young Shire residents. Work all week, party all weekend. But Cronulla is not alone: this is our national culture of booze masquerading as a "just another stage of life' rather than calling it for what it is: young people growing into a lifestyle which abrogates responsibility. Grog and violence are generational and it's about time we had a national public discussion and debate about the ugly side of Australia.

The rioting was shocking not only for its racism but the degree of violence. It sent a message to young people that the way to solve a problem is through bloodshed. Fortunately most young people have been sickened by the downward spiral. What disappointed me was that some of the aggressors were men in their thirties and forties " some I knew by face " who had the potential to offer leadership of a different kind.

My family lay awake listening to sirens and awoke to police helicopters as they pursued cars following "hit and runs' around Caringbah. Only a short distance away a man was stabbed, shops smashed, a woman shot at, another followed home and threatened, tyres blown out, and a shopping centre "locked down.' Going to Cronulla to visit my mum at night was like crossing Check Point Charlie on the old East German border.

December 11 should be placed in the broader context of the world stage. Six local girls were killed in the first Bali bombing and many more escaped the fire of the Sari Club. The war on terror has come home in a much more tangible way: the Kingsway feels like the Baghdad Highway and people have changed their behaviour out of fear. However until recently there has been no coalition of the willing, only a coalition of hate. We have felt more like residents of Brixton or Paris than people of the sleepy Shire. Sydney and Australia has changed forever.

Paul's call to the people of Athens " "men of Athens I see you are religious in every way' " was as much a call to abandon those things which give meaning and identity: identity not grounded in the one true God "in whom we live and move and have our being'. This same God is the great reconciler who brings love and forgiveness to those that seek him. Those who know and love him are building the bridges of peace and hope in a fearful community. They have no fear because they know to whom they belong.

Graeme Cole is Public Affairs Manager with Wesley Mission, Sydney and a former Cronulla youth worker, who has worked as a journalist on local papers and The Australian. He is a parishioner of St Andrew's, Cronulla.