Like most people I have been brought up to refrain from speaking ill of the dead so my remarks instead are addressed to Malcolm King's blinded assessment of Sid Spindler's contribution to Australian society. Whatever other attributes Sid Spindler may have had, human rights activist was not one label Malcolm King can claim for him. Sid Spindler was an outspoken advocate for the right of women to have their preborn children killed by abortion...and the duty of taxpayers to pay doctors to do this for them. The right to life is the first human right...all talk of other rights being merely academic without the guarantee of this right.You have to be alive to have any human rights!! To me Sid Spindlers committment to abortion ...as well as euthanasia.... were quite at odds to his background....eugenics as is increasingly advocated by the abortion lobby ..and euthanasia having had their genesis in the very regime from which he escaped. As the poet Santanyana is quoted in the forward to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it". Sid Spindler's Australian Democrats have become increasing preoccupied with the issues of abortion and euthanasia..witness Natasha- Stott- Despoja's vidictive pursuit of Pregnancy Help Services run by volunteer prolifers and Lyn Allison's campaign for the abortifacient pill RU486...not only for Australia's women but for the poor hapless women of our neighbour East Timor. Women known to cherish their babies and their family life, women whose greatest consolation to date in their strife torn country, has been their children.

Like most people I have been brought up to refrain from speaking ill of the dead so my remarks instead are addressed to Malcolm King's blinded assessment of Sid Spindler's contribution to Australian society. Whatever other attributes Sid Spindler may have had, human rights activist was not one label Malcolm King can claim for him. Sid Spindler was an outspoken advocate for the right of women to have their preborn children killed by abortion...and the duty of taxpayers to pay doctors to do this for them. The right to life is the first human right...all talk of other rights being merely academic without the guarantee of this right.You have to be alive to have any human rights!! To me Sid Spindlers committment to abortion ...as well as euthanasia.... were quite at odds to his background....eugenics as is increasingly advocated by the abortion lobby ..and euthanasia having had their genesis in the very regime from which he escaped. As the poet Santanyana is quoted in the forward to The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it". Sid Spindler's Australian Democrats have become increasing preoccupied with the issues of abortion and euthanasia..witness Natasha- Stott- Despoja's vidictive pursuit of Pregnancy Help Services run by volunteer prolifers and Lyn Allison's campaign for the abortifacient pill RU486...not only for Australia's women but the poor hapless women of our neighbour East Timor. Women known to cherish their babies and their family life, women whose greatest consolation to date in their strife torn country, has been their children.

Thank you Malcolm for a wonderful article about a truly remarkable man. I was at his funeral, and listened to his children talk about their father's life and it made me proud to have known him. The service was a true celebration of his life and showed how many causes he had fought for. If only we had more like him.

I also came away with a renewed vigour to try to change the world in any small way I can. I'll never be as successful as he was at agitating for change but I can only try.

Narelle

Like New York, New York, it's so good Denny posted it twice. The article must have hit home. I remember Spindler for pushing for a Bill of Rights in 93 or 94 and for advocating for the legal status of same sex marriages. Maybe the more things change, the more things stay the same. Gotta keep on pushing.

I Met him in Canberra a few times. Seemed to always have a dozen projects on the go.

Denny, Denny, Denny, what are we going to do with you? I will fight for your right to quote Santanyana, because it makes you look smart, when really, your attitudes are part of the problem.

Good on you Relle. Sounds like you've got the Sid-stuff!