No Alice Springs U Mine Protest Pup
I’m preparing a few articles, thoughts and musings which will be posted to this site soon.
I’ll be reflecting on what I’ve learnt about politics over the past 7 years as an alderman. What I think about the ‘social situation’ of Alice Springs and the mechanics of the public battles. Also, I would like to highlight some of the many success stories about people on the ground, making a difference, changing the world…
here’s a teaser -
TRYING TO BE PROGRESSIVE IN A CONSERVATIVE HEARTLAND
I thought I lived in a progressive town.. because the people I spent time with were progressives.
Back in 2004 I assumed everyone thought the way I did .. and that we were just unfortunate that the ultra-conservatives kept winning office…. I thought that maybe the left put up bad candidates..
until I went doorknocking canvassing people’s votes.. I was amazed and astounded to find that behind most doors lurked a conservative and they had strong opinions!
So I started speaking up, challenging the status quo. And it has been a long hard battle, exposing myself to ridicule, being lambasted in the local paper, bullied by some.
I thought I was making a difference.
BUT.. To my ongoing surprise (STILL! 7 years later!) the conservative vote has remained the same (actually increased I think) and the progressives still struggle on the sidelines, on the outer.
I’ve seen the ugly side of the so called progressive side of politics too… People pushing me to take stands which I consider to be retrograde, causing harm, making noise for the sake of it.
We live in a conservative heartland. Therefore the only way to get solutions is to drive the conservatives towards the solution in the best possible way, to work with them, to understand their point of view..
Related Posts:
- Click on the ‘Heartland’ link under categories (top of page)
- Heartland 2 – Firstly, let’s look at the Alice Springs ‘law and order’ (now revised to the ’pooing on the streets’) mantra.
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Heartland 3 – Enter the faith communities – taking one step beyond political structure.
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Heartland 4 – published by The Drum – http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/43634.html
More to come later tonight
