Rainier

Surely Jack Beetson is the "best bloke in the business" (Unsung Hero Award 2002 - of only 12 in the world!) when it comes to stupid others of any race, sect, cult, religion etc? If Jack was here he would not mix emotional with rational argument. He'd just say: " Get off with the bulldust and get on with it".

Well I have other elders/heroes in my family, including my own parents, who never enjoyed the privliges that Jack Beetson did.

Like them I was born on an Aboriginal reserve *the prototype for detention centres* and their life struggles/strategies continue to be an inspiration to me.

Besides suggesting to you that I don't need heroes recognized and anointed by colonizers, I'm also questioning your understanding of what Jack Beetson was all about. From my understanding Jack was very emotive when it came to Rights for Aboriginal people (Koori's) but also knew what was or what was not achievable.

Your suggestion (i assume) is for me and others to adopt a rugged individualism without any calculation or understanding of how power relations and race relations operates in this country. I’d be dead if I did not.

It might look possible from your end, but try walking just one day in my shoes and you'll find it’s not that simple. This does not mean I’m straight jacketed by my emotion. Quite the contrary.

Like my own heroes, who when possible, would always advocate an adherence to self reliance (beyond their own existing self reliance) I’m not guided by emotion alone and I doubt where whether my own heroes (which include many non Indigenous peoples) would or could separate emotion and compassion with rationality. They inform each other.

PCT's argument is for a clinical and unemotive rationale to all things at all times. For me, this is simply a call for an emotional retardation where we should all adopt a ‘big boys don¹t cry syndrome’ -which is interestingly, a big chunk of how conservatives think and express themselves. Where is the love? At the same time I do understand how these emotional responses have been historically appropriated by the Left, repackaged as policy, for no real outcomes.

So for spectators such as PCT (and his protégés) on the sidelines not readily engaged in real power struggles for survival, they can't comprehend what this would be like. This is why they need to simplify it.

Does this answer you question?

Getting back to the Reith/Rottie thingy for an instant. When I first moved to Melbourne in 1997, my partner and I were driving one nice, sunny Sunday morning down St Kilda Road, where we stopped at a red light. This was prior to the MUA dispute. Both my partner and i were working in a prominent union. I, in the passenger seat, looked up to see one Peter Reith (thank goodness there's only one of him), walking across the walk way in front of our red light. I pointed out that it was Peter Reith (right in our cross hairs!) to my partner and urged him to hit the accelerator. To his credit? he restrained himself. After the MUA dispute and Reith's duplicitous and disgusting "symbol" of doing the right thing by workers who are blue collar and earning $70K a year without being in parliament and in control of Telstra, it is one regret we sometimes share. Just thought you'd like this story Rainer. Not that I'm condoning hit and runs against our pollies of course. But for a moment, god, it was tempting!

I admire the control you both showed Di. I would have pleaded temporary insanity due to my 'self rightous and self decieving' mentality and would have asked Paul Comrie Thomson to testify as an expert witness on my behalf.