[LINK] Human rights must not be party political

[Tom Koltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Ben McGinnes
> Sent: Monday, 13 December 2010 7:06 PM
> To: Link
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Human rights must not be party political
> 
> 
<SNIP>
> 
> It comes down to the politicians' view of "we the people," to 
> whit we have elected them so now they get to decide exactly 
> what we want.
 
Not all of them, I am pleased to say.
Without naming names...
On the weekend, I attended a shopping centre and was pleasantly
surprised to find the local (state) member with a table and chair,
taking to anyone that wanted to sit down with him. 
The cynical side of me says... We must be having a state election soon.
The "I believe in the goodness of humanity" side of me, says, I have
never yet seen a politician so open, approachable and who took so many
copious notes when talking to constituents.
He reminded me of a first year article clerk transcribing verbatim a
legal settlement conference. The impression he gave was "I am interested
in what you have to say and I am writing it down so that I can action it
later..."

I wanted to share that with you boys and girls, I observed him for a
while and there were no "asides" to his assistant (actually his wife)
there were no skyward glances behind peoples backs. There appeared to be
a genuine concern and interest in what his constituents wanted to talk
about. 

Now if we could get legislation passed that mandated that every
politician to do that every Saturday morning, wouldn't the world be a
better place?

TomK