Global Climate Change Action

Regarding Editorial OPINION, The Weekend Australian October 27-28 2007, "Day dreaming left is in for a big surprise":

Part of the above Editorial Opinion caught my eye, and ire... "Having spent the last decade miscasting John Howard as immoral and mendacious, the intellectual left is now compounding its mistake...". I didn't know what mendacious meant but certainly understood what immoral meant, at least to me. Now that I know mendacious means lying that gives more reason to comment.

The Editorial opinion claiming John Howard as a moral leader who doesn't lie to the electorate illustrates clearly to me how morally low Australia has descended and how urgent it is to get back to something like normality. To take JUST ONE ASPECT of Howard's immorality there is something rotten in the state when a man who abuses children and their familiies and then boasts about the effectiveness of the abuse policy is considered moral and fit to govern.

I sometimes cannot sleep and literally walk the floor trying to make some sense of the gap which my mind cannot bridge between John Howard the back slapping, hugging election campaigner and John Howard the child abuser, apparently devoid of conscience. It is equally sinister to consider that at least half of the Australian population don't even care that he abuses children and still see him as one fit to govern. Why don't they ever think about what else such a man is capable of in the wrong circumstances? If he is capable of deliberate cruelty to the innocent children of Iraqi, Iranian, Afghanians etc because it is politically expedient, what on earth will stop him from abuse of the children of any other minority such as Aboriginal, Sudanese or left thinkers when public opinion can be moulded to make that a voting advantage?

The disturbing answer is that the media will not stop him, his fellow cabinet ministers, by their past record, will not stop him, the courts seem unwilling or unable to stop him, the police act as if nothing is wrong and half of Australia has been seduced by bribes and Howard's honeyed tongue while the relentless attack on human rights and freedom continues.

I hope for the day to come soon when it will be accepted as normal for leaders to be moral, for newspaper editors to seek beyond the popular and for people to become discerning and look beyond their immediate needs.

Allan Nield, Whyalla Norrie, SA 5608.