In one of my Facebook groups, Possum Park Protection Plattoon, Hannah Fisi shared a photo of a plaque that sits on the corner of Dequetteville Terrace and Bartels Road, Rymill Park.
It reads: In recognition of 100 years of dedicated service to horticulture with passion and pride, Antonio Lepore (commenced service 20/1/1960) and Carmine Lepore (commenced service 3/12/1979). “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”
An article on Adelaide A to Z, filled in some background. These two brothers have tended our Adelaide park lands and squares from a time when there were cows still grazing in Park 14, with Clydesdales in neighbouring paddocks who pulled bakers around the suburbs delivering their bread door-to-door.
There’s is a quiet but inspiring story. There is untold value that flows from people who have dedicated their life to a calling or a craft. Their work contributed to the City of Adelaide‘s stewardship of what Stewart Sweeney calls our Civic Inheritance – the deliberate sowing of green fields and parks around and within Colonel Light’s colonial city.
Similarly, other South Australians have pursued their passions to right wrongs and to point us forward, from the likes of social reformers, Mary Lee (suffragist) Don Dunstan (Premier).
We look up to people like Mary, Don, Antonio, and Carmine, and the danger is we categorise them as “special” or as people with “other worldly powers”. However, the uncomfortable truth is they share our common humanity. Their difference is that instead of frittering time away with Netflix or silly squabbles on social media, they lived their values, sometimes at great personal cost.
In short, they gave a damn, and we benefit from their gumption.
But as our current government threatens to pursue a neoliberalist agenda, dismissing our natural heritage as “vacant space” ready to be ripped up and concreted so our state can “rent the attention” of tourists for a few financial sugar hits, people are stirring. People are becoming aware not only of their righteous anger but also of their agency for being heard.
This is their song, written on Sunday, just gone, to remind me and you that we can take the lead in the story of our lives, we do not need to leave it to others.
And it was also inspired by Jane Goodall’s comments on The Adelaide Show many years ago, that looking at the big picture of woe and tributions in society can freeze us, so we should look down at the square metre we stand upon and start effecting change there.
Step. By. Step.
Higher Legacy Lyrics
[Verse 1]
You planted trees for us, even though, you will be gone, before there’s shade
You did what’s right for us, even though, we take for granted what you’ve made
Know that one day
Know that one day soon
We’ll understand your wisdom and we’ll try to follow you
[Chorus]
When everything seems bleak
And every cause feels lost
Start with where you’re standing
Each small step means a lot
Take a stand against destruction
Take a stand against the greed
Take a stand for something noble
For a higher legacy
[Verse 2]
You gave a damn for us, even though, it cost you many sleepless nights
You forged a path for us, even though, we rarely, celebrate our rights
Know that one day
Know that one day soon
We’ll channel righteous anger and we’ll try to follow you
[Chorus]
When everything seems bleak
And every cause feels lost
Start with where you’re standing
Each small step means a lot
Take a stand against destruction
Take a stand against the greed
Take a stand for something noble
For a higher legacy
[Bridge]
Pluck a weed and plant a flower, is the smarter way to live
But when greed holds the power, it’s all take and never give
So when our leader holds an axe, and proudly boasts about the blows
We must ignore the sycophants and shout, the emperor has no clothes
[Chorus]
When everything seems bleak
And every cause feels lost
Start with where you’re standing
Each small step means a lot
Take a stand against destruction
Take a stand against the greed
Take a stand for something noble
For a higher legacy