by Peter Boyle
I became a grandfather this week. The much-anticipated first grandchild arrived at 11.42pm. That’s worse than it sounds because she was born in Perth and I live in Sydney - two hours ahead. I groggily answered the phone but my eldest daughter’s excited voice woke me up quickly and the memory of the birth of my younger daughter just 11 years ago came rushing back.
“I cannot stop looking at her, she’s beautiful”, eldest daughter added provoking tears on my end. In a couple of minutes she’d sent a picture of her bub over the mobile phone. It has already circled the world through my diaspora-ised extended family and friends by now.
The next day, the eve of the November 24 Australian elections, I found it hard to concentrate at work until someone sent me a clipping from the blogsphere titled: “Vote for your grandchildren. Vote for change.”
“So why is a former National voter (me, believe it or not) considering voting for the Socialist Alliance? Or the Greens?" typed a blogger named Tikiwanderer.
“With the reading and work I put in on climate change and the environment this year, one thing was repeatedly clear. We have to change the way we do things. And not a token effort. It has to be sustainable change, not just for New Years. We can make a lot of those changes on a personal level, and we should - twenty percent of the changes we need can come from that alone. Unfortunately, to really deal with the problem we will also have to change the way our society works. Business as usual won't do it, no matter what trimmings we put on the outside…
“Change is scary sometimes. But if we continue on as we are, trying to make every change as gentle as possible, we simply won't change fast enough. And I'm thinking in centuries. By the end of this century, we'll still have as much of a problem to deal with as we do now - but the intervening time will have made it harder for our grandchildren who have to face it. Instead, we need to embrace the fact that we are changing, that we will change. Seek it out. Invest in change. Claim the change. Make it ours. And make it now, for our children's children.” (source:)
Well said Tikiwanderer! But the campaign for the radical changes we need to make for our grandchildren continues apace.
Green Left Weekly is a critical voice for that important campaign, and we run on people power not on corporate handouts/bribes or government subsidies. Ordinary people like us power has allowed us to raise a total of $194,046 so far this year, which leaves us another $55,954 to raise by the end of this year to make our $250,000 target.
Our readers have been rallying strongly in recent weeks with several donations of up to $500 each helping us raise $5,396 in just the last week. So we are confident of making our target. You can invest in change with a direct deposit at: Greenleft, Commonwealth Bank, BSB 062-006, Account No. 901992. Alternatively, send a cheque or money order to PO Box 515, Broadway NSW 2007, phone it through on the toll-free line at 1800 634 206 (within Australia), or donate online.
