Posted by Kevin Bates on July 19, 2002, 4:18 pm Many thanks for being in touch - I appreciate your comments and the spirit in which you offered them. --Previous Message--
Thanks a lot Magdalene - I share your sense about the two candidates at the last presidential election - along with all the machinations underlying each of their campaigns. Mike Moore's book was a real eye-opener. It is just as difficult here - our leadership in both major Parties is goverened by pragmatism rather than what is good for everyone - numbers rather than people tend to dominate. Hope is somewhat hard to find - though in all Parties there are people with real integrity and who genuinely seek the good of the community -their voices are too often drowned out by the big egos in the system!
: Hi Father Bates,
: No worries. We never quite see the whole
: context of where other people are coming
: from -- and that can cause us to
: misunderstand them. It just happened to
: me yesterday!!!
: I share your concerns about how my country
: uses its power. And as for the abuses of
: capitalism, I spend most of my time in
: class trying to subtly get my students to
: question their assumptions about how great
: it is. (Most economics students think
: capitalism is GREAT, and they major in
: economics under the mistaken impression
: that it will help them be good
: capitalists.) But because they mostly
: don't want to be preached at, I've had to
: become a master at subtlety. My aim is to
: plant seeds and leave the rest up to the
: Spirit. I'd say I actually do have an
: impact on a few of them. But it's hard,
: we share a culture that worships material
: gain.
: The real tragedy of our election was not a
: question of how to count chads. It was
: that we had a choice between two louts
: like Bush and Gore. Bush does not seem to
: be super-swift, and he has all those close
: ties to the business community. Gore got
: into his own troubles over fund-raising
: issues, plus he never met an abortion he
: didn't think was great. The whole affair
: was revolting. And in the Florida fiasco
: itself, I'd say that all sides were
: profoundly dirty. Nobody rose to the
: level of statesmanship. Not even close.
: In my country there are NO politicians who
: are good on all Christian issues. I don't
: know if you find that you have the same
: problem in Australia.
: Cheers,
: Maggie
:
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