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A round of applause and heartfelt thanks to all those who have been demonized, vilified and trodden on in their attempts to help us all. Without these men and women, these brave souls, what hope do we have for right and fair standards, for integrity in our society?
These people are truly worth being lauded for coming good. These individuals, who have not made capital wealth their sole contribution to society, (unlike Lennon’s mantra on Gunns and the pulp mill) but whose determination, courage and commitment to their own conscience and not their own gain, are the positive contributors to the everlasting benefits to society’s moral wealth.
(continued)Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 23/04/07 at 11:18 PM“INTEGRITY” from “The Royal Path of Life”
“Young men look about them and see a great measure of worldly success awarded to men without principle. They see the trickster crowned with public honors, they see the swindler rolling in wealth, they see the sharp man, the over-reaching man, the unprincipled man, the liar, the time-server, the trimmer, the scoundrel who cunningly manages, though constantly disobeying moral law and trampling upon social courtesy, to keep himself out of the clutches of the legal police, carrying off the prizes of wealth and place.
All this is a demoralizing puzzle and fearful temptation; and multitudes of young men are not strong enough to stand before it. They ought to understand that in this wicked world there is a great deal of room where there is integrity. Great trusts may be sought by scoundrels, but great trusts never seek them; and perfect integrity is at a premium even among scoundrels. There are some trusts that they will never confer on each other. There are occasions where they need the services of true men, and they do not find them in shoals and in the mud, but alone and in pure water.
Integrity is the foundation of all that is high in character among mankind; other qualities may add to its splendor, but if this essential requisite be wanting all their luster fades. Our integrity is never worth so much to us as when we have lost everything to keep it.
Integrity without knowledge is weak; knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Integrity however rough, is better than smooth dissimulation. Let a man have the reputation of being fair and upright in his dealings, and he will possess the confidence of all who know him. Without these qualities every other merit will prove unavailing.The world is always asking for men who are not for sale; men who are honest, sound from centre to circumference, true to the heart’s core; men who will condemn wrong in friend or foe, in themselves as well as others; men whose consciences are as steady as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right if the heavens totter and the earth reels; men who can tell the truth, and look the world and the devil right in the eye; men that neither brag or run; men that neither flag nor flinch; men who have courage of everlasting life runs still, deep and strong; men who will not fail, not be discouraged; men who know their message and tell it; men who know their own business; men who will not lie.
Avoid all base, servile, underhand, sneaking ways. Part with anything rather than your integrity and conscious rectitude, flee from injustice as you would from a viper’s fangs; avoid a lie as you would the gates of hell. Some there are who are callous as to this. Some there are who, in stooping to mercantile dishonor and baseness - in driving the immoral bargain - think they have done a clever action. Things are often called by their wrong names; duplicity is called shrewdness and wrong-heartedness is called long-headedness; evil is called good, and good evil, and darkness is put for light, and light for darkness.
Well! Be it so. You may be prosperous in your own eyes; you may have your carriage, and plate, and servants, and pageantry; but rather the shielding and the crust of bread with a good conscience, than the stately dwelling or palace without it. Rather than the marble mausoleum, which gilds and smothers tales of heartless villainy and fraud - rather, far rather, that lowly heap of grass we were wont often to gaze upon in an old village churchyard, with the simple record of a cotter’s virtues: “HERE LIES AN HONEST MAN!”
There is nothing more sad than to be carried like a vessel away from the straight course of principle; to be left a stranded outcast thing on the sands of dishonor: a man bolstering himself up in a position he is not entitled to. “That is a man of CAPITAL,” says the world, pointing to an unscrupulous and successful swindler. Capital! What is capital? Is it what a man HAS? Is it counted by pounds and pence, stocks and share, by houses and lands? No! Capital is not what a man HAS, but what a man IS. Character is capital; honor is capital. That is the most fearful of ruin when CHARACTER is gone, when integrity is sold, when honor is bartered for a miserable mess of pottage. Perish what may; perish gold, silver, houses, land, let the winds of misfortune dash our vessel on the sunken rock, but let INTEGRITY be like the valued keepsake which the sailor boy lashed with the rope round his body, the only thing we care to save. Let me die; but let angels read, if friends cannot afford to erect the grave stone: “HERE LIES AN HONEST MAN.”
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 23/04/07 at 11:19 PMThank you Dr Raverty, for standing up and speaking for what you know to be right. It can’t have been an easy decision for you, given the track-record we have in the way we treat ‘whistle-blowers’. When this mill idiocy is defeated, you will be lauded as a hero - take heart, stand firm.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 24/04/07 at 09:03 AMThank you for your courage Dr Raverty in the face of corporate greed, union bullies, forestry rednecks, absolute lack of intelligence and ability to strategically plan in the form of Liberal and ALP politicians, and an acceptance of corruption at all levels in Tasmania that is excused by the cult of “whatever it takes”.
I hope your Queen’s Council lands some blows for the under-hand attack you have sustained, just because you spoke out about the disgraceful political situation in, and corporate domination of Tasmania.
From Dr Raverty’s interview on-line - links above:
“My understanding is that tourism is already, right now, bringing as much money into the Tamar Valley every 3 – 4 years as Gunns own best case estimates suggest the mill will bring in in the next 20 years.”
“Now, my experience of going to Launceston mainly and to Tamar is that I have yet to speak to anybody in the streets, and that’s mainly people of moderate views and dispositions – not the ‘deep green left’ – who want the mill at Long Reach. So you’ve got a situation where Gunns want it there, the Tasmanian Government wants it there, but by and large the electorate don’t want it there. The electorate, again, were prepared to wait for the RPDC decision but Gunns have unilaterally withdrawn from that process and everybody, almost to a man and a woman, is deeply suspicious of Gunns’ motives in withdrawing and insisting on the mill going into this valley which includes a lot of other ‘conflicting uses’, which include tourism, and vineyards and fisheries and so forth, all of which could be severely damaged by this mill – certainly tourism could be damaged by the mill – if it isn’t got exactly right.”
His response to contributors to the site sums up what has led to his courage to fight for a community that is under sustained emotional attack from a corporate bully and uneducated, self-serving politicians:
“On the eve of that terrible landing on the beaches of Turkey 82 years ago, I recall that one of my grandfathers was wounded on that beach and my father fought impending tyranny as it percolated southwards through the jungles of New Guinea between 1942 and 1944. I am simply following a fine family tradition. Today of course, at least in Tasmania the situation is arguably worse - the ‘traitors’ are not just at the gate, they are walking the floors of the people’s parliaments making laws that would make ‘the fallen’ turn in their graves. It is up to all Australians who feel unease at what is happening in Tasmania, and in the rest of Australia, to make their concerns known to their elected representatives and to use the Australian law in whatever way they think appropriate to restore what our forefathers and mothers fought to preserve. Remember that for evil to prevail, it is only necessary for women and men of goodwill to do nothing. It is your democracy - make it work for you and for your community!”Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 25/04/07 at 02:51 PM
