Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.
-Lord Chesterfield, 1748

Let's Find Our Elders and Give Them a Go

Rick Farley delivered yesterday Our land, our duty of care, and it is highly recommended read. To Margo Kingston, Rick is already a great Australian, a man who genuinely strives to serve the public interest. He is someone who - if put in a position of power - could be trusted to act with integrity.

Kevin Rozzoli wrote today a story about the courage to reform. Like Rick’s speech, Kevin’s article is peppered with wisdom and suggestions for improvements. I have known Kevin for two decades and I think of him as a pillar of democracy. When Kevin was a presiding officer at the NSW Parliament House, you did not feel you had to be a political expert to state an opinion. 

He conveyed a sense of knowing how people fit into the world. Kevin encouraged staff to think and feel as the individuals he or she was. That is what democracy is; that is what moral responsibility is. That is the moral burden of a citizen of a democracy. To think, to speak out and to be counted.
In a true democracy, the definition of parlar - to speak, to talk - includes every citizen not just a priviledged few. It is time to do some soul-searching. Do we really want to bring up our children in a plutocracy, or a democracy? So lets heed wise advice from elders and fathers of democracy such as Woodrow Wilson who said, ‘What I fear is a government of experts.’
· The Human Golden Ratio: The Wisdom of Elders [SMH]