THE Bendigo Advertiser has been challenged this week for not reporting a terror threat in Bendigo at the weekend.
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There's a good reason we didn't report the event - it never happened.
It's amazing how an intoxicated man shooting his mouth off at a bus stop could progess so quickly to a point where such a large portion of the community becomes convinced the city was on the verge of its first beheading.
Police have confirmed no such event took place.
Understandably, they crave community commonsense in what's fast becoming a volatile time.
The Federal Government made a responsible decision in lifting our terror threat level.
The reaction from some members of the general public since has been anything but.
Everyone should show responsibility before deciding to post or push on this social media nonsense.
Those who support the 'hysteria' will point out the tragic events of Endeavour Hills on Tuesday night to support their case. A tragic event, yes. But a time for perspective instead of an open invitation to turn to social media to fuel more community concern.
Social media is awash with nastiness and fear mongering... a lack of responsibility from adults who should know better.
But among all that rubbish was a beacon of rationale late yesterday in the form of a Tweet by lawyer, opinion writer and proud refugee Mariam Veiszadeh of a friend's Facebook post.
It read: ''Just got screamed at in the street ''why don't you f... off back to your own country?'' Walking with pram and hubby in a suburban street in Perth. Oddly, I can't f... off back to my own country as I'm 8th generation Australian''.
Great perspective in a very sad time for our country.
