For all this beautiful scenery, it’s the beauty inside us you’ll never take. Pic: Craig Greenhill Source: News Corp Australia

In Sydney’s Hyde Park, just down the way from the Lindt café which remains under siege at the hands of a terrorist lunatic, a busker played the classic jazz standard “Summertime and the Living is Easy”.

It’s a lazy, languid tune which sits well with the blue skies and cool sea breeze on this absolutely beautiful Sydney summer day.

But was it an insensitive song given the desperate events unfolding just a few hundred metres away?

Jonathan Thomsen, we give you two thumbs up. Source: NewsComAu

It was not, and we’ll let the busker himself tell you why. His name is Jonathan Thomsen and his business card describes himself as a “ukulele minstrel and singer for hire”.

“It’s still summertime, it’s still a beautiful day and that’s why I’m playing this song,” Jonathan told news.com.au.

“I’m actually really annoyed at these stupid terrorists. It’s a beautiful day. Get out of my beautiful day is basically my message.”

Jonathan’s words echo something we’re all feeling today. Across the city of Sydney and the freedom-loving world, people are already saying that those bastard terrorists might give us momentary surges of fear and horror, but they’ll never steal what we hold most dear.

And what exactly is that?

Well, freedom obviously. Religious, political and personal freedom.

But here in Australia, there’s something else we cling to. It’s our easygoing nature. Our spirit of letting people do whatever they want to do, live how they want to live, believe what they want to believe, as long as they don’t hurt anyone in the process.

In a sense, the living is always easy in Australia — and not just in summertime.

That doesn’t mean easy as in slack or lazy. It doesn’t mean we don’t toil like buggery for everything we cherish. It means we have a society which is fantastically easy to get along in. Even when we don’t agree with each other, we remain at heart a tolerant, friendly, outgoing people.

This is Aarushi Sharma and Jason Hung, workers who were forced to evacuate the Westpac building across the road from the siege. Proud, hardworking Australians, they can’t believe the threat of terror has come to our streets. Source: NewsComAu

Belligerence and bullying has never been the Australian way. As proof, we’ve never started a war.

Some people can’t accept that. They can’t even comprehend the concept of a country defined by unity, not enmity. In all likelihood, one such person is currently holding innocent people hostage in a Sydney café.

NSW Premier Mike Baird today said “we will remain a strong, democratic civil society”. He’s right, no matter what happens.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said we are “a peaceful and generous society, nothing will ever change that.”

He was also right, and it’s worth mentioning that he spoke with a Christmas tree behind him. Though obviously a religious symbol, the Christmas tree is also a universally-accepted symbol of peace and goodwill.

But the man in the park with the ukulele said it best.

“Get out of my beautiful day, stupid terrorists”.

He’s right. But we’d add: get out of our beautiful country. Your grievances have nothing to do with us, our way of life, or the innocent people you today dragged into your sad, deluded world.