"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Tuesday 12 October 2010

I Get Taken In

Every now and again, I get a comment that sounds like a genuine inquiry. I respond in that vein. Then slam- bam, the vitriol  spews out.

I know other candidates have blogs  and good luck to them. I don't understand why people interested in communicating, which is the lifeblood of politics, would not want to take advantage of  new technology.

At the same time, I'm too busy with my own  to dispute what they have to say.

In the past, a candidate considered time well spent in getting out their own message.

People tended  to be averse to hearing another candidate maligned.They want to hear what you have to say  and why you think you might be able to make a difference in their lives.

This election is different. For three and a half years I have been keeping readers  informed of my perspective on what has been happening at the Council table.

My  impression is,I have an interested and growing audience. Whatever happens in the upcoming election, I feel good about that. I've used  my skills  to good advantage. I don't think politics are ever going to be the same again.

I think we are at the start of a revolution.

When this election is over, we can get  get down to discussing real issues with  the same powerful vigour. Consultants may be a thing of the  past.

 If I am elected,I look forward to a new beginning.

I think ordinary people have never really gotten used to the idea  they could make a difference and that's why we have a low turn out in voting.

I think the social media is  changing  that. The slick operators and  scam artists  have had their day.

A familiar childhood rhyme just popped into my head.   Hard on its heels the thought,rhymes used to-day for children , in Scotland at least, were not intended for children at all.

They were actually a sly and subtle means minstrels purveyed  news as they traveled around the country in a  feudal society.

Ring around a Rosey
Pocket full of posies
Hush-a-hush-a
All fall down;

It was a story about the plague, posies to overwhelm terrible odours, silence and  people falling down dead.

The one that just popped into my head unbidden tells an  equally horrid story.

Tell-tale tit
Your tongue will be slit
Every little puppy dog
Will have a little bit.

It could be about a medieval punishment for spreading  the news.

The power barons had a vested interest in keeping serfs uninformed.

Slavery didn't start in Africa

We've come a long way, baby

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