thought you might have been a no vote. I know another man at the bridge club, I have a lot of respect for him, he is a nice person but I didn't enjoy his efforts to convince me to vote no. And I would respond to him by saying yes of course there are dodgy deals involved, of course bad stuff will happen but so what, that's always the case, that's all going to happen anyway.
I was using the term elders in an aborigine way. The system of government by the elders was based in just normal behaviour - the people who had survived to old age and gained the love and respect of all the tribe members became the elders. Maybe this wasn't happening in every tribe but there does seem to have been numbers of tribes where it worked like that. Anyway it is real, I see the faces and I hear the voices and I feel the echo of those times. Those people, that naturally would have become elders - I want to listen to them.
Yes it is about feeling. I feel it is courage and a humble heart behind the request for a voice and shameful we did not agree to what feels like a very grown up step forward in reconciliation.
I think the most cogent argument for the no vote was that it tilted against the non-racial stance of politics by giving 2 seats on a racial basis.
Against that I give you Terra Nullius. This was their country and why not make an acknowledgment of that.
I don't really expect them to be able to fix anything and I agree there are selfish people in every race but there are also good people and this is their country - maybe they do know some stuff.
