Lucky to be alive

After "picking up" The Age this morning (i.e nicking it from outside the security department at RMIT), I wasn't suprised to see that yet again, another depressing, heart-wrenching, overally emotionalised report had been placed on the front page. The story this time was about the recent sentencing of Leigh Robertson, a man who was found guilty of murdering Tracey Greensbury in April last year. According to the article, Robertson had previously committed a murder back in 1968 involving his ex-girlfriend Valerie Ethel Dunn. He had been spared the death penalty at the time because of a campaign to save another murderer at the time, Ronald Ryan. In short, had it not been for the action of Governor Sir Rohan Delacombe, "Tracey Greenbury would still be alive".

And that is where I step in.

Firstly, newspapers are not bloody fortune tellers. Who are they to say that Tracey Greensbury WOULD be alive today? They have no idea of the lifestyle she lead, the people she knew, the things she did each day. For all we know, she could have been a drug addict, crazy drunk who was going to end up either in a wheel chair thanks to the aid of a tree or overdosing in the same manner as Anna Nicole-Smith.

But I'll excuse myself purely for this experimentation. Lets give Tracey the benefit of the doubt. Lets say she was your girl-next-door, your cookies and cream, sweet as sugar, charming young girl who gave to charity and never ate chocolate after dinner. The reality is The Age still could not have predicted if she would still be alive today even if she had such a lifestyle.

People die all the time. Its a fact of life. Some die in more pleasant circumstances, like in their sleep. Some die in more distressing events, like in a car crash. And some die at the hands of others.

In the end, we can not decide the fate of somebody purely by saying what could have been. If anything, Tracey's death was a blessing in disguise for not only the women Robertson raped in 1983 but for Valerie Ethel Dunn, the original victim in this whole saga. Tracey was the straw that broke Robertson's back and there is no way now that a parole board with any sense would let this monster out in the public again.

And so my dear readers, I beg you.
Do not cry.
For Tracey's death was no lie.
Though she suffered at the hands of another,
We can safely say it saved another,
And it was this courage and bravery that was needed to set Val free.

I thought you might all like a little something different to spice up your day. Until next time, don't worry. Be Happy.