You Should Feel Thankful Poem by Francis Duggan

You should feel thankful you are born here
Where you can speak your feelings without fear
You could have been born in Country far away
Where you might have to watch each word you say.

Here in Australia if you feel so inclined
You need not feel afraid to speak your mind
The Government feel free to criticize
There's freedom here more than you realize.

In many Countries people die each day
Because the Government does not like what they say
The silence of the people caused by fear
And you complain there's lack of freedom here.

I've never lived in a speech throttled Land
So I could never fully understand
What 'twould be like to live with silence as a friend
And where words would bring your life to violent end.

We look at things in ways quite differently
And on this one subject we cannot agree
There's freedom here more than you realize
And the Government feel free to criticize.