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From: <della.cooper@bigpond.com>
Date sent: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 17:47:33 +1100
Subject: [Civic-Courage] some thoughts
Hi,
it seems what we need is a kind of good-news network.
Would we agree the biased focus of media on reporting the worst of human
nature, and its servitude to the precisely tailored abuse of linguistic
power by incumbent authorities, is at the root of our deluded popular
culture?
I don't see how we can steer clear of politics - hasn't this call been
prompted by the siphoning of our personal power to fuel the mass delusion
being carefully nourished by leaders who have lost their way?
Aren't we calling for recognition of clear sight and sanity in our public
figures?
Displaying the courage to speak out is a political act - calling the truth
when your confederates are mislead requires that one put higher good above
personal comfort, security, even safety.
I'm offering my contribution because I can't abide a world in which truth
is hostage to fear. I'm a bio-geographer, permaculturist, poet, full-time
mum and, as you may have noticed - a questioner.
Why respond to a call to honour civic courage?
To anyone with an inkling of how a supposedly free nation can be led to
slaughter, the present climate is chilling.
My child is not cannon-fodder. My best option is to work on building a
nation within the nation, one founded on just principles - not
misinformation.
I observe people allowing themselves to be entertained with fear, so as
worthy as the turtles are I have misgivings about the support from and
involvement of commercial media. To my mind 'entertainment' is entangled
in our present ills - maybe it's an irony to administer the antidote with
the disease...or maybe it's an effective means of neutering what could be
a potent vessel of change.
Either way, an annual award that's forgiven and forgotten can't grip a
disaffected public. But how do we reach people who have been trained to
have the attention spans of fleas?
I don't know, but I feel the 'Idol' culture is wrong. Please don't emulate
it.
And start small - don't feed the fear your personal energy...switch off!
Read Leunig - a true and sparkling hero!
Long live Civic Courage!
Della.
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------- Forwarded message follows -------
To: Civic-Courage@yahoogroups.com
Copies to: Civic-Courage Moderator <Civic-Courage-owner@yahoogroups.com>
From: <della.cooper@bigpond.com>
Date sent: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:04:30 +1100
Subject: [Civic-Courage] altruistic courage
Send reply to: Civic-Courage@yahoogroups.com
[ Double-click this line for list subscription options ]
(We're agreed we want to applaud courage in the pursuit of altruism?)
Yes,
pragmatism wins the day. We must do what is necessary to effect change -
no more, no less. And what becomes necessary only unfolds with time.
I am party apolitical. No tribal creed has a monoply on courage. Courage
in the pursuit of altruistic goals must be recognised in any quarter. And
when it comes to politics I use the word in its least degraded sense.
Just as I'm a pedant for the purest meaning of a word, I'm keen to see the
best of humanity held in high esteem...
Remember the guy who used to custard pie public figures?
What's the opposite of custard pieing someone? How do you draw positive
attention to a person?
Do we create a new stage to bring our recipients to, or develop a roving
routine to fit whatever fleeting stage we find our hero upon? Or both?
Can we hijack existing media exposure to include a compliment to our
courageous action or individual?
Imagine - Petro, holding his personal space from a pin cushion of
microphones, when suddenly someone parts the commercial static with a
bunch of (organically grown) flowers and a thankyou.
Rather dated? The kind of thing we no longer have the energy to perform or
witness? Impossible in the era of hypervigilance? (Remember, this erosion
is so powerful because we, society, are all so tired and divided- it's an
inverse relationship).
More than a literal suggestion I guess I'm trying to help activate our
imaginations, and it really helps to dwell on positive imagery.
And I really wish I'd written to Petro to let him know of my support. He'd
risen above politics (degraded sense) to display the illumination of heart
that's the best of human qualities.
Could Greenleap or Civic Courage be a provider of contact details for
courageous figures when an issue or action is hot, so those of us with the
inclination can more easily make our encouragement known? (red flag)
Cheers,
Della.
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------- Forwarded message follows -------
Mon Nov-14-2005
<della.cooper@bigpond.com>
Could Greenleap or Civic Courage be a provider of contact details for
courageous figures when an issue or action is hot, so those of us with the
inclination can more easily make our encouragement known? (red flag)
From: <della.cooper@bigpond.com>
To: Philip Sutton <Philip.Sutton@green-innovations.asn.au>
Subject: Re: Red flag
Date sent: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:10:21 +1100
Yes.
heartening feedback, as Frances said, must be so important when you're out
there with the sharks.
I (and I'm sure many others) have such little time that even when I'm
touched by someone's courageous act, I do nothing to bounce back my
approval for them.
Any thing that allowed me to respond to someone's courage without the
personal saga of obtaining relevant contact details would be a
constructive step towards greater recognition of the kind of bravery we
want to promote.
It seems a relatively simple and obtainable step: collate the right kind
of courage making the news (and take contributions - not everything makes
the news!) and link it with the contact details so we can respond
'on-site' so to speak. (But then I'm not the one managing such a system -
no doubt it takes lots of work!)
Hey presto! An interactive good news network!
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------- Forwarded message follows -------
To: Civic-Courage@yahoogroups.com
From: <della.cooper@bigpond.com>
Date sent: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 16:48:41 +1100
Subject: [Civic-Courage] democracy? support change
Send reply to: Civic-Courage@yahoogroups.com
Hi
Not all that long ago Free Trade was known by another name.....Piracy.
I agree with Tim, we need interventionist goverment ( what, after all does
it mean to 'govern' - certainly not to remove all regulatory checks to
allow a few rich bullies to get richer while everyone else is treated as
'grist for the mill').
To govern is to provide checks. Is a democracy that gives us nothing more
than a choice of who feeds us to the machine a legitimate democracy? I
don't think so. We have a plutocracy and I can't; I won't, defend it.
(Can I still say that without being imprisoned?)
We got here through the incremental erosion of truthful meaning. We don't
have the time to reverse the process through incremental accretions.
(Though every 'baby-step' is worth its weight in gold.) The impulse for
change is here, so yes we must 'facilitate what is happening'; we must
catalyse the process, as has been mentioned. We face is the montstrous
task of changing culture, and Tim has identified two specific courageous
roles that the cc program could support.
Thanks Tim.
Cheers,
Della.
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