Good article but its not a question of "humble democracy".
It depends on who is in charge and the mood of the general culture altogether.
Australians are generally quite open to the concept of no executions.

By contrast the USA with its frontier his-story of genocide and its associated gun "culture" is predisposed to execution psychosis.

As the Governor of Texas George W Bush was responsible for many an execution and not one act of clemency.
The USA which is bringing "freedom", "democracy", and "jesus" to the rest of the world is a world leader in executions.

And as The Shock Doctrine points out there is more often than not no correlation whatsoever between so called "democratic" political power (or rather lack of it) and those who really rule or call the shots---the Shock Doctrine economists of the American "Consensus" installed by the World Bank and the IMF etc etc.

BARRY JONES HAS CONVINCED ME BUT THE MORE PEOPLE WHO BRING THIS TO OUR ATTENTION ...THE BETTER

Dick Cheney's intimation that Iran could set off WW3, does this mean that Cheney, Bush, and nuclear little Israel already have plans for it?

Regards, a concerned BB.

HICKS is another example of "what we don't understand" in democracy. How we turn problems into sensational tragedies because we lack the basic human understanding to LEAD and PREVENT BASIC FORMS OF CRIME.

EMOTIONAL LIFE OF NATIONS revisited.

Howard is wrong to believe that when I want us to address the "sorry" or "apology" issues of Indigenous peoples, it is to wear guilt because of the treatment by previous generations. How simple and superficial this kind of claim is. How brainless does he think we the publlic are. Be it our previous generations (HISTORY) or what (SCARS) we witness (impose) today... WE NEED TO CLEAN UP!

The future generations will have to continue to carry the burden of our mindless woes. UNDER-DEVELOPMENT - WAR - and the reproduction of marginalisation and ignorance... repeated over and over.

Our so called democracy is presently very much AT RISK.

With the internal and external problems as they really are, we are placing everything we care about now at jeopardy, at every level of society... in everyday life.

Instead of leadership Australia is contributing to a history that I believe our children and there children will live to regret.

Denial and white lies are worse then those black especially when we have the wisdom and capacity to stand up to it, change the middle sail.

Why is it always only those marginalised, displaced or abused who are always supposed to be the ones who must (to move forward) BE expected to forget (Denail) or or forgive?

The burden must be shared to gain progress.

It is time we GROW UP.

Very Good Article

Thank You and it is aptly timed.

http://www.miacat.com
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Yep good article I think. And some good comments by the converted. I could rave on forever about what I think but it would only be read by people like us and therein lies the problem.
Miacat's comment inspired me to write this as I want to say something about this statement below out of Miacat's comment.

(Howard is wrong to believe that when I want us to address the "sorry" or "apology" issues of Indigenous peoples, it is to wear guilt because of the treatment by previous generations. How simple and superficial this kind of claim is. How brainless does he think we the publlic are.)
I have to laugh and cry at the same time as the one thing that I'm convinced of is the brainlesness of the australian public, Howard has known this secret for a long long time and but still took ages to wangle his way to the top. " what was his famous comment a few elections back? something like this " the only thing that australian voters are interested in is ' the price of petrol at the pump'" And what is the media bombarding you with for the last month or so? a horse flu...
When was the last time you, remember a ' national stoppage' " what? a national stoppage?' never heard of it. The marches against throwing our lot in with the terrorist for territory were a bit of a sunday outing I remember. The best one that I attended was put on by a bunch of school kids in Newcastle. Don't ever mention teh word ' revolution' Here's my voting recommendation. Vote for any minority candidate that refuses to swap prefs with either the coalition or the alp.
If that is possible given that popular elections foster egomania.
Cheers n beers and bring back smoking!, ' takes away the smell of all you people that wear deodorant n other chemicals
mmmmm tobacco..