YOUNG SHOW WORTH
Family members have returned from the Far North Coast, where they had travelled to help an elderly relative whose home of many years was inundated.
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They returned with glowing tales of the generosity of ordinary people and the efficiency of both volunteer groups and government instrumentalities. Among all that devastation they returned very proud to be Australians.
The various council and government departments were there to help and worked quickly and efficiently.
Most of their praise, however, was for young, ordinary people who turned up to offer help – and that included people who had suffered themselves from the flooding. And the most generous offers came from young people.
It’s easy to complain about the younger generation but such disasters make it clear that the spirit of generosity and of helping those in trouble – as we oldies experienced in war time – still exists.
STEADY OVER FAST TRAIN
Goulburn will need to make sure it has a direct input into any proposals for the recent suggestion for a new type of fast train between Canberra and Sydney to ensure the best decisions are made, not only for Goulburn itself but for the future of Australia.
There is an interesting proposal from a Spanish company which says it could provide a system that would mean a two hour trip between the two capitals but that system might not be the answer for a future Australia. The line from Goulburn to the ACT was built originally for the old steam engines which had no problem when it came to bends but were very slow when it came to chugging up hills. Fast trains, on the other hand, have little problem with hills but need good tracks and a wide curve when it comes to speedy travel.
And the present Federal Government, which seems to lack any imagination for a future Australia and even scrapped the committee set up to investigate a fast train system between Sydney and Melbourne, will most likely claim that the Spanish system would be up to the State Government and simply go back to sleep.
We need to start talking about an efficient transport system for a future Australia.
A SAD LACK OF BALANCE
With a growing family and lots of cuddles from little ones, your ancient scribe is obviously concerned about their safety – but sometimes the cure could be more dangerous than the problem.
Although no longer a very active member, I belong to a service club that, among many things, often sells ‘sausages in a bun’ at functions to raise money to fund their extensive charity work.
Because children might be among the customers we have been informed that every member must have a police check to ensure we don’t have a history of abusing children.
Fair enough, we need to protect our children – but we also need those children to grow to become caring adults and this police check mentality suggests all adults are potentially dangerous individuals. That is very sad indeed and quite wrong. Most adults in any community would be very caring people and it is terribly sad if we place them all in the category of people to fear.
Sure, we do need to protect our children but do we take the same actions to protect them from, say, convicted drink drivers or drug dealers? Why not force those who have been convicted of such dangerous actions to have notices posted on their front door warning parents to keep their children away from these potential killers? It is the same mentality.
ARE WE ALL VILLAINS?
Just recently, a little girl ran out of a bank as I was passing and, much to my shame, I paused before I put my arm out to stop her running on the busy road. Indeed, the toddler stopped without my help but her mother gave me a nasty look. I was, apparently, a potential villain – as is every other adult, particularly the males, in any community.
It is sad that children (and their parents) are being conditioned to treat all of the village as potential child abusers. What sort of adults will these children grow into if we are all conditioned to treat everyone around us as someone to be feared?
What some people obviously see as a protection for their children could separate those children from the caring attention of the rest of the community they live in.
WHERE ARE THE NEIGHBOURS
Once we had ‘neighbourhoods’ and the neighbours helped keep an eye on the children as they played outdoors and climbed trees. A lot has changed since then. Children don’t play outside as they once did, they don’t play with their neighbours’ children and, indeed, lots of people never even get to know their neighbours.
Friends might be one the other end of an IT connection – but you can’t cuddle a computer or a telephone, it’s not the same as a personal, human contact. It seems that this lack of physical contact with the rest of humanity is leading to some very boring lives. Why else would anyone want to take ‘mind altering’ drugs - unless they don’t like their current lifestyle where their telephone or computer is their main contact with other humans?
The big changes started with the introduction of television, which my father described as ‘the most antisocial device in mankind’s history’ when, instead of sitting on the front steps on a summer’s evening, talking to their neighbours, people went inside, closed the doors and let others, even people from other countries, entertain them.
Sure, the might be a risk involved but we need contact with real people out there in the real, non-electronic, world.