CALLING ALL OLDIES. ITS TIME FOR WISDOM SHARING.

On By Everald ComptonIn Ageing, Good Books, History, religion, Seniors

I write books as a delightful way to relax as I enjoy trying to relate my life experiences in an entertaining way that my friends will enjoy.

So it is that, in the six years since my 85th birthday, I have written and published 4 books and have just begun the fifth.

May I suggest that you do likewise and commence right after reading this. There is no time to waste.

I can hear some of my friends saying ‘I am no good at writing things down’ but can I nicely say this is just an excuse. All you have to do is ask one of your grandkids to put it into their computer while you chat away about what you want to say. Then you work together to knock it into shape.

When you finish, there is no need to publish it publicly unless you deliberately choose too. If you have a computer and printer its easy to print off 50 copies to give to family and friends.

Just dont die without recording the music that is in your soul. Your accumulated wisdom is of value to all around you. All you have to do is decide whether to tell you life story or just describe important events in your journey or be like Agatha Christie and write a thriller that your fertile mind will enable you to think up.

Let me briefly tell you my story as an amateur author.

During my long career as a fund raising consultant, I wrote some boring books on raising money, then wrote a family history and my personal history.

I enjoyed doing that, even though none of them were a great success, so late in life I decided to get serious about my writing and enjoy doing so.

My first choice was not a hard one to make. John Flynn, Flynn of the Inland, had been a role model of my life since I learned about him at Sunday School so I wrote THE MAN ON THE TWENTY DOLLAR NOTES. I decided to write it as an historic novel, depicting him as an old man reminiscing about his life. I made sure I got the historical facts correct and created conversations that related to the personalities of those involved. It has been my best seller, 6000 copies sold so far.

Buoyed by that, I decided to write another one and chose to tell the story of how the nation of Australia was created in 1901 and how its Constitution was written as I reckon most Australians don’t have a clue as to what happened. DINNER WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS follows the same theme as with Flynn. I have our first Prime Minister, Edmund Barton, inviting the most famous of the Founding Fathers (Deakin, Griffith, Forrest, Kingston, etc) to dinner after the event to review what they did and what they could have done better.

Then I wrote A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET. It is pure fiction, the story of a man who has a terminal illness and decides to make his last 3 months the greatest of his life despite huge criticism of his decision to depart via Voluntary Assisted Dying. It is a positive tale of life and death and legacy.

My latest is CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN that describes the events, people, places and causes that determined my life of 91 years which began in the little village of Linville. I reckon it is my best and I was chuffed when a reader whom I have never met went on Facebook this week to commend it with these generous words,

“Well, I’ve read a few books but none are as engrossing and well written as this. If you are interested in history or philosophy, grab a copy. It is brilliant.”

Thank you Noelle.

Right now, I am working on another one, WALKING WITH THE GREAT SPIRIT. I will tell you about it another time. As soon as you can, I want you to start writing and enjoy it. There is no hard work involved. The world needs your words. There may be no tomorrow.

But let me finish with a few comments about the photo below.

My computer reveals to you that I am working on ‘Walking with the Great Spirit’. Beside it are my four books and in front of them is my whisky mug called TOBERMORY. It is a splendid whisky from the Scottish Isle of Mull where Australia’s Governor Macquarie is buried and the tiny Isle of Iona is nearby. You will find it is highlighted in the book I am currently working on.

Salut

Everald

Feel free to go to my website

Everald’s Mission

Click on SHOP and buy a signed copy of any or all of my books.

Then become an author yourself. Best Wishes.

I AM PROUD TO BE A WOKE, BUT TURN MY BACK ON CANCEL CULTURE.

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Good Books, History, religion

Some people on social media regularly accuse me of being a WOKE and they do not mean it as a compliment.

So, I typed WOKE into Google recently and it instantly came up with this description.

Woke is a name given to people who are –

‘AWAKE TO THE NEEDS OF OTHERS, WELL INFORMED, THOUGHTFUL, COMPASSIONATE, HUMBLE, KIND, AND EAGER TO MAKE WORLD A BETTER PLACE FOR ALL PEOPLE.

Even though I have a healthy self ego, I can’t claim that I qualify for this accolade, but I proudly proclaim that I am trying to do so as a REFORMING CONSERVATIVE.

I live and move and have my being from a basic set of values and ethics, but I am a reformer who acknowledges that we live in an ever changing world and have a responsibility to ensure that the inevitable changes meet the needs and aspirations of humanity.

I hold the view that to achieve this I am more likely to do so as a WOKE.

Sadly, whatever I try to achieve as a reformer is declared by the Christian Right to be socialist. In their view, it is not possible to have a conscience and also remain a conservative. They declare me to be a ‘leftie’.

Fact is that I have never ever joined a political party and never will. I have been a swinging voter all my life and vote for candidates of quality, never a political party.

However, when I study the lives of people who claim to be WOKES, I do find that far too many are extremists who forget that a WOKE is someone who is thoughtful, but we can’t be this if we have closed minds that takes us out to the extremes. This is not at all smart.

I find that WOKES who move to extremes are actually addicts to the CANCEL CULTURE, people who are destroyers of any form of enlightened thought. They declare themselves themselves to be God and sit in judgement of the world when their own lives and deeds would not stand any genuine scrutiny.

They fill me with disgust when they want to take down statues of Captain Cook, an explorer of extraordinary achievement, who simply carried out the written orders from his King to claim the great south land as part of his empire.

I am even more disgusted when the CANCEL CULTURE guys want to rewrite all the children’s books I loved reading at school just because their closed minds declare them to to racist or sexist.

But let me calm down and move on as I declare myself to be a REFORMING CONSERVATIVE WOKE who is proud to be identified by this title forever.

If you have never met me and want to check me out so you can decide whether or not I am a nutter, please buy my book CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN. It sets out my views on 30 significant historical events that I have experienced in my 90 years on our planet, plus 20 influential people I have worked with and 20 historic places I have visited that influenced my thinking. Also a chat about what I think have been the main achievements of my life. All of this began 85 years ago when I took my first journey away from my home village of Linville on the train going to Toogoolawah.

I think you will find that I qualify as a REFORMING CONSERVATIVE WOKE but, if you decide otherwise, then please tell me where I went wrong,

But, whatever you decide, please join me in giving the CANCEL CULTURE guys a solid kick in the butt.

A signed copy of CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN will cost you 35 dollars. Just go to my website

Everald’s Mission

click on books and follow the prompts, or just send me a message with details of your postal address and mobile phone and I will post it to you and send banking details.

Enjoy the read.

By the way, the photo below shows what a WOKE looks like. Stern, angry, fearsome, avoidable

Cheers

Everald

A REFORMING CONSERVATING WOKE

SCOURGE OF THE CANCEL CULTURE

VALE HARRY BELAFONTE – THE KING OF CALYPSO -‘HEY MR TALLYMAN TALLY ME BANANA’.

On By Everald ComptonIn Civil Rights, Good Books, History, Justice

He lived a long and influential life that made an impact for 96 impressive years and involved him in a high profile career as a singer, actor and civil rights campaigner. The world has been enhanced by his presence.

I first encountered him at the cinema 50 years ago when I went one evening to watch him act and sing in a top quality movie called ISLAND IN THE SUN which was based in the Caribbean. This was when I first heard him sing the Banana Boat Song and caused me to take a huge liking to his Calypso music. It has stayed in my memory all those years. I remember it fondly whenever I painfully listen to ear deafening modern music which is absolutely appalling and without any soul or tone. Even worse is its capacity to make it impossible to have a conversation with anyone.

Belafonte went on to become a household name on screen and stage.

As the years advanced and, as he had always displayed in the passion of his singing and acting, he readily moved into the world of the civil rights movement as he had a profound sense of justice. He was living from experience, having as a black man suffered racial discrimination in hotels, restaurants, transport and public places, often denied admission because he was not white.

Regularly, he marched for justice with Martin Luther King and was often hit with police batons and arrested for disturbing the peace.

He went to South Africa to campaign for the release of Nelson Mandela causing the apartheid government much embarrassment as anti Mandela whites turned up in their thousands to hear him sing. Those people then hastily told all around them that they really were unhappy with his support of Mandela, but simply couldn’t miss his concert.

Poverty was on his agenda too, no matter whether the poor were black or white, and as the years advanced he became more politically radical and generated a huge number of outspoken critics.

But that was Harry Belafonte. He could never betray his conscience.

Some years back, I read a significant biography of his journey. It spelled out his life in fascinating detail. He lived his justice commitment in public and his songs always gripped people as an expression of personal compassion.

One racist incident I remember vividly.

When ‘Island in the Sun’ was first released, many bigots descended on cinemas in several Southern States of America and set fire to them in protest. The lead female actor in the film was Joan Fontaine who was white and she and Harry acted a couple who developed an intimate relationship. White bigots were affronted by this, claiming it would encourage black white marriages that would destroy American society. This was one of the fundamental reasons why he joined forces with Martin Luther King.

Belafonte was a MAN. He was not a BLACK MAN.

In writing this article, I recall two other African Americans whose lives were lived on a similar path to him.

One in recent times was Sidney Poitier who died last year. I immensely enjoyed his films TO SIR WITH LOVE and GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER.

Another was a century ago. Paul Robeson, one of the greatest singers of all time. He was declared to be a communist because he fought for his right to live in equality with whites. His singing of OLD MAN RIVER was just magic. A wonderful way to die would be to quietly go to sleep listening to him singing and telling me that old man river will just keep rolling along.

In my book, A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET, the prime character of the story, who has a terminal illness, listens to Paul Robeson as he departs by Voluntary Assisted Dying.

But let us all also remember a great Australian, David Gulpilil. Like Belafonte, Poitier and Robeson, he too suffered unwarranted humiliation as an indigenous person, but highlighted his proud heritage in several wonderful films which greatly helped me to understand the racial issues Australia must overcome on its path to reconciliation. I will always remember his roles in THE RABBIT PROOF FENCE and THE TRACKER.

So, let me come back to Harry Belafonte. He showed us that famous actors and singers can use their fame to achieve great things for society. May there be many more like him.

The final words come from his great friend Martin Luther King,

‘I dream of the day when my children will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the quality of their souls’.

Everald (a calypso fan)

FATHER BOB

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, religion

I shed a tear this week when I learned of the death of Father Bob Maguire, then I revived my soul to give thanks for the inspiration he has given me.

Father Bob was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church who lived in Melbourne and believed that his prime task was, not to give priority to the conduct of Mass, but to have an unwavering commitment to feeding and housing the poor, hungry and homeless.

He did this so splendidly that he became a legend in his own lifetime and a role model for many people like me as we strive to care and share.

His passing has come at a crucial time in the history of Churches and religion. Never before in my lifetime have Churches been held in such poor esteem or been in such a state of decline. Their appalling tolerance of child abuse has been absolutely shameful and their stance against abortion reform, same sex marriage and voluntary assisted dying was lamentable.

However, Father Bob was not a Churchman. He was a Christian, a committed working partner of Jesus of Nazareth, a follower of Jesus the Man, who did his utmost to walk with him to create a world of compassion.

He believed that what you did in life was far more important than what you said. In this belief, he was spot on.

This put him at odds with the hierarchy of his Church who condemned him for ‘not effectively carrying out his spiritual responsibilities as a priest.’ They actually hounded him out of his South Melbourne Parish at age 77 despite him wanting to remain at his ministry until he died, just as Popes are allowed to do. This humiliation of him was grossly vindictive as 77 is nowhere near old age.

I am not old at 91 and I am still able to conduct Church Services and lead the community care activities of my local Church. I plan to do so for another ten years.

But, lets get back to Father Bob’s total commitment to humanity.

He had deep personal experience of poverty. His father was a drunk and a wife basher who often left his family without food for days. He became an orphan at fifteen with no home and rags for clothing. He understood poverty. He had lived it.

So, he spent his life, trying ceaselessly to ensure that he personally helped people out of the gutter and the depths of despair to get a fresh start. Most people in South Melbourne knew that, if you were in strife of any kind, you could go to Father Bob’s home in the depths of the night. He would answer, you would be welcome and he would do something practical to help, especially if you were unloved and unlovely.

Such was his commitment that, when his Church kicked him out, he set up the Father Bob Foundation so that he could could continue his work in the community for another eleven years. Love was in his blood and, even though he was a powerful communicator who terrorised governments to do better, his actions far exceeded his words. Always.

Like all of us, he had his faults, but the good exceeded the bad by a huge margin.

As we say goodbye to him, the best way to give thanks is for you and I to decide to become the Father Bob of our street and create a caring society that is powered by compassion and justice.

VALE FATHER BOB.

Travel safely.

Everald

PS. My book, A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET, is about a guy who has a terminal illness, has only three months to live and tries to spend them helping people around him who are in trouble, making his last days the most meaningful of his life. Father Bob was still doing this in his final days of grave illness.

WOMEN

On By Everald ComptonIn History, religion

Men have controlled the world since time began and in our modern era there are far too many males who want a strong degree of control to continue forever.

The cold hard facts of the matter are that they remain in charge of the domination stakes as women are still not paid equal money for equal work and have to work much harder to advance their careers than men do.

Of considerable concern is that domestic violence just grows and grows as some men try to retain control by physical power alone.

Churches give bad leadership in this situation as, throughout the world, they are still male dominated even though women comprise more than 60% of most congregations and the hope of ever having a female pope is as close to nil as is possible.

So this Sunday at my local Church, Aspley Uniting, I will try to make a contribution to the cause of changing attitudes about the role of gender in society.

I am giving the ‘sermon’ and will base it on the lives and leadership of five great female leaders who were Christians.

*Saint Teresa of Calcutta who spent her life caring for those in hunger and poverty. Malcolm Muggeridge once wrote a great book about her called ‘Something Beautiful for God’

*Florence Nightingale who was British and created the nursing profession despite great hostility. The world knows her as ‘ The Lady with the Lamp.’

*Saint Mary MacKillop of Australia who enabled the poor to get an education. The only person in the Roman Catholic Church was excommunicated for defiance of orders from her Bishop and rise from ‘disgrace’ to be declared a saint.

*Gladys Aylward, a Christian missionary from England who saved the lives of many children in the Civil War in China. Originally she was rejected as a missionary because ‘a white woman could not survive alone in China.’

*Catherine Hamlin of Australia, gifted surgeon who devoted her life to doing incredible work for the poor as a medical missionary in Ethiopia. She is still active at 96.

Clearly, there are many more women who deserve an accolade, but I can’t fit them into one sermon.

PLEASE JOIN ME TOMORROW MORNING SUNDAY, EITHER AT THE CHURCH IN ROBINSON ROAD ASPLEY AT 8.30 OR 10.15, OR BY LIVESTREAMING ON THE CHURCH WEBSITE, THEN OR AT ANYTIME IN THE NEXT FORTNIGHT.

Front Page

I have highlighted below the cover of a wonderful book on the life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the powerful crusading Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America who died a few years ago. I enormously admired her.

She was out numbered by dominating male Justices but she influenced their decisions mightily and courageously, particularly in cases involving discrimination and injustice.

Her quest for equality extended to her religion.

She was Jewish and the fundamentalist males of her religion have for centuries, in the ritual of their daily prayers, said

‘I thank you God that I was not born a woman.’

That says it all.

Everald

An old bloke from the bush where ‘men were men’. Whatever that means.

WHO AM I?

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Constitution, Good Books, History, religion

At age 91, I do a lot of reflecting about the 9 decades in which I have been around and about.

I constantly ponder the meaning of the fact that most of my reflections are about stupid things I have done and people I have hurt because my sense of commonsense and compassion has lapsed too often.

I try to make up for it, not just by striving to right those wrongs, but by making sure I don’t do them again and by concentrating on achieving better things for humanity right now that avoid my errors of the past.

While I am very active as Chair of ACTS, a charity that gives direct financial aid to people in crisis situations, and as Chair of the Everald Compton Charitable Trust that funds good causes such as dementia research, I also spend time helping to get new civic projects underway and endeavouring to mould public opinion on politics, religion, money, values and ethics.

I do a lot of public speaking on these issues but my main thrust is through my personal website and its links to Twitter and Facebook.

This week I decided that my website needed a facelift as it is looked as if it was as old as me. So with the experienced help of a good mate, Dylan Bell, who has huge computer skills that I don’t have, I revived the masthead by removing it and showing –

*The Railway Station and Pub at Linville where I was born and bred.

*A recent portrait of me.

*A photo taken at Government House Brisbane last year when I received an Order of Australia for a second time.

*The covers of my four books currently on sale –

CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN – my account of the world history of my era.

A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET – the story of a man with a terminal illness who makes the last three months of his life the greatest and best.

DINNER WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS – a dynamic account of how the nation of Australia was founded in 1901 without its Constitution mentioning the heritage of Indigenous People.

THE MAN ON THE TWENTY DOLLAR NOTES. – the gripping drama of how John Flynn created The Flying Doctor, the Pedal Radio and the School of the Air.

In 2024, I will add another one to my website – WALKING WITH THE GREAT SPIRIT – a challenging and meaningful account of the rise and decline of Christianity in my lifetime, with 50 chapters describing people who were giants of the faith as well as a few of those who sought to destroy it.

So my website is an important statement as to who I am – a boy from the bush who has tried to make a difference and will continue to do so until the day I die.

People who visit my website usually go on to read what I say on Twitter and Facebook.

12000 have registered to follow me on Twitter and 5000 on Facebook. Many of those share my social media posts on to their own followers who do likewise and statistics show that at least 100,000 people read what I say every day and many respond with comments. This enables me to help keep politicians on the ball as most of them have chosen to read what I say from time to time.

May I say as an aside that there are too many people who abuse me on social media so I instantly block them and move on, We all should debate. There must be no hate.

So, who am I and what am I trying to achieve?

I am a person who firmly believes that the world is run by those who turn up.

So I turn up and I create, challenge, debate, share and care while trying to practice a bit of humility.

But I know I can do better, much better, and I plan to keep trying.

Cheers

Everald

https://everaldcompton.com.au

Click on Visit My Shop to buy signed copies of any or all of my books.

IN 1937 A SIX YEAR OLD BOY TOOK THE FIRST JOURNEY OF HIS LIFE ON THE LINVILLE TRAIN.

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Good Books, History

On the back cover of my new book, CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN, there is a splendid painting that depicts the scene.

My friend, Noela Lowien, a talented painter who lives at Kilcoy in Queensland, not far from Linville, has captured the moment.

Never before had I ever travelled beyond Linville, a tiny village in which a timber mill was the focal point. My dad worked as a labourer at the mill earning 3 pounds a week (six dollars).

This day was a huge adventure for me. It took me to Toogoolawah, a distance of 20 miles, to spend a day at the rural school where they tried unsuccessfully to teach me wood work. It took a long time for the world to work out that my only skill was talking.

That first journey turned out to be the first of many thousands that followed to every continent on the globe. The book chats about the significant world events that impacted my life, famous people I worked with, historic places I visited and nostalgia about books, films, theatre, sport and the important things I believe I have achieved, concluding with a memorable journey back to Linville on my 90th birthday to walk for 14 kilometres along the now disused railway track and raise 35000 dollars for ACTS.

Well, the book is being launched on Thursday evening of the coming week, 16 March, at 6.00pm at All Saints Anglican Church in Hamilton Road at Chermside in the northern suburbs of Brisbane, 140 kilometres from Linville.

You are welcome to join me there to share a red wine and a chat. Its a fundraiser for a Uniting Church charity that I chair called ACTS that gives direct cash grants to people in crisis situations. It will cost you a few dollars, but you will enjoy a happy evening.

All of the royalties that I would normally earn from book sales that night go to ACTS

SEND ME A MESSAGE AND I WILL BE IN TOUCH.TO ORGANISE A PLACE FOR YOU.

So far, 112 people have registered to attend and have paid up in advance, but I can fit you in for sure.

Cheers

Everald

PS. Noela Lowien has also done a flattering portrait of me which is on the front cover of the book. Noela will be at the launch. You can sign her up to do a portrait of you.

JOIN ME FOR A DRINK AT MY BOOK LAUNCH.

On By Everald ComptonIn Good Books, History, religion

THURSDAY, 16 MARCH, 6.00PM, ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CHURCH, HAMILTON ROAD, CHERMSIDE, BRISBANE

You will meet Rebecca Levingston of ABC Radio who will MC the evening.

Also Wayne Swan, Greg Cary, Paul Scarr, Anthony Lynham & Shayne Neumann who will comment on my latest book

CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN

The function is a fundraiser for ACTS, the community service arm of the Aspley Uniting Church, which makes direct cash grants to people in crisis situations. Last year, we shared 77,000 dollars to the bank accounts of more than 100 people who were in significant trouble.

For a modest 25 dollars per person you enjoy a great evening and some excellent drinks and savouries, most of which have been donated by generous supporters of ACTS.

A signed copy of my book is available for 25 dollars. All royalties on book sales at the launch go to ACTS.

And you can make a tax deductible gift to ACTS if you choose to do so.

In addition, we will all enjoy the company of many fine people who have already signed up to attend.

My book is not my autobiography. I wrote that a decade ago.

CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN is all about the world that opened up to me following my first train journey from the tiny village of Linville to the world 85 years ago when I was just 6 years old. There are 81 short chapters about the great national and international events of my era, influential people I worked with, historic places that impacted on my thinking, nostalgia about books cinema theatre and a humble analysis of five important things I feel that I achieved in my life. Finally, I return to Linville and look at where our world is heading.

There are many of my 17000 friends on Twitter and Facebook whom I have not yet had the privilege of meeting so this book launch is a time when I hope to say hello to you.

If you would like to catch up, send me a direct message on Twitter or Facebook and I will make contact.

In the meantime, you will note that I am already at work signing books. I am delighted that so many have been ordered in advance.

Cheers

Everald

‘CELEBRATING’ THE FIRST BIRTHDAY OF THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE.

On By Everald ComptonIn History, International, Nuclear

There are only three things that can be celebrated at the conclusion of one year of a war that began when Russia invaded Ukraine.

*Russia has failed to achieve its aims.

*The people of Ukraine are valiant and resourceful.

*Zelensky is a leader of huge stature and strength.

There are three things that can be lamented.

*NATO has given Ukraine only token support.

*Russia will not withdraw its Army from Ukraine.

*The armament industries of the world are making huge profits and will do all they can to keep the war going.

A number of facts cannot be ignored.

*Putin believes that, by fact of history, Ukraine is a fundamental part of Russia. Indeed, he denies their existence. Most Russians agree with him even though they don’t want to die in battle for it.

*Even though the war has gone badly for Putin, his internal political power inside Russia has grown considerably for a wide range of reasons.

*Putin knows that, despite the strong rhetoric of Biden and his Allies, there is a limit to the support that western nations will give Ukraine while he continues to threaten nuclear retaliation. He will stay in the battlefield long enough to drive them to this limit. He believes that it is a goal that will be reached when the United States elects a right wing Republican President in 2024.

*Zelensky and the people of Ukraine will fight with enormous passion to the very end of their endurance, at which point their future will be grim.

*The death of Putin will alter nothing. His government is full of zealots who will continue the battle. Bear in mind that this regime has spent years shooting down airliners, poisoning dissidents, interfering in foreign elections and hacking the internet. Ukraine is just part of a long term restoration plan.

*A majority of the people of Russia, once communist, have now moved over to the nationalistic right in large and growing numbers.

*Their zeal to restore Russia to its former glory will not cease until they resume control of every nation that was once part of the Soviet Union.

All of my comments are bleak, but factual and undeniable.

The so called western nations have hugely underestimated Russia. Even if Russia loses this current war with Ukraine, they will rebuild their military capacity and try agin in a few short years.

With all my heart and soul, on the first anniversary of this horrible war, I convey my warmest good wishes to Zelensky and the courageous people of Ukraine.

I fervently hope my predictions of the Russian strategy are proven wrong.

At a very minimum, I hope that the millions of refugees who have fled from Ukraine to seek shelter in the nations of the European Union will be able to return to their homeland at some point in the near future.

Everald

‘CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN’

On By Everald ComptonIn Uncategorized

Here is the very first copy of my latest book that I have called ‘Catching the Linville Train’.

You are already aware that I am a lousy photographer, but I have tried to take it in front of one of Helen’s pot plants just to emphasise that I am a boy from the bush.

Anyway, the first few boxes of this book will arrive at my home in 2 weeks and you can buy a signed copy from me for 35 dollars which includes 10 dollars postage and packaging.

THE NEWS THAT I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT HERE IS THAT THE LAUNCH FUNCTION FOR THE BOOK WILL BE AT ALL SAINTS ANGLICAN CHURCH, CHERMSIDE, BRISBANE, ON THURSDAY, 16 MARCH, AT 6PM. (Drinks and savouries, 7.30pm finish)

Shortly, I will be emailing invitations. If you would like to attend, please send me a message and I will put you on the list.

Just be aware that it will cost you some moderate dollars as I am organising it as a fundraiser for ACTS, the community service arm of the Aspley Uniting Church. I am its Chair and we make direct cash grants to people in strife from floods, droughts, fires, domestic violence, elder abuse etc. All Saints Anglicans are our partners in caring for the community.

My contribution to the fundraising on the night is to ensure that all royalties from book sales at the event go to ACTS.

Now, let me tell you what’s in the book.

First of all it is not an autobiography. I wrote that 10 years ago. It was called ‘Tracks to Somewhere’ and was limited to 400 copies that I gave them to family and friends, free of charge.

This one is quite different and has 81 chapters of about 4 pages each and they are in several sections.

EVENTS – this has 30 chapters that cover my view of major national and international events that impacted on me over my 91 year lifespan.

PEOPLE – 20 chapters about influential and famous people with whom I have worked around the world.

PLACES – 2O historic places, all over the planet, that I visited that made a profound effect on my thinking.

NOSTALGIA – My memories of 5 things that have had a significant role in my life, ie, books, cinema, theatre, musicals, sport.

PERSONAL – Accounts of the 5 major achievements of my life.

LINVILLE – my return to Linville, the small village in the Brisbane River Valley from which I made my first train journey 85 years ago and which led me to a life of frequent travel around the globe.

I first serialised this book on Facebook in 2021 for 81 weeks under the title of YOU AND ME AND HISTORY. When I put them all together, they amounted to 35000 words. So I did lots of research and expanded them. There are now 99000 words in must more interesting style.

So it is now about to go on sale and join the 3 previous EVERALD BOOKS, ie, ‘The Man on the Twenty Dollar Notes, ‘Dinner with the Founding Fathers, ‘A Beautiful Sunset’.

I will give you a huge discount if you are brave enough to buy all four.

And there is another one underway that will be out in 2024, plus three more in my mind that you can enjoy before I reach the young age of 100 and complete my apprenticeship as a writer, so I can get really serious about my books.

Cheers

Everald

PS. Joining me onstage at the book launch will be my valued friends Rebecca Levingston, Greg Cary, Wayne Swan, Anthony Lynham, Paul Scarr and Shayne Neumann.

The book is dedicated to Helen without whom I would not have achieved anything.

My portrait on the front cover is the excellent work of another good friend, Noela Lowien, who lives at Kilcoy, not far from Linville. When you get to look at the back cover, you will find another splendid piece of art by Noela. It shows a little boy getting on a train at the Linville Railway Station.

26 JANUARY IS NOT AUSTRALIA DAY.

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Constitution, Good Books, Government, Referendum, Uluru

I have already celebrated Australia Day 2023.

On 1 January this year, as I do every year, I poured a wee dram of my finest scotch whisky (Lagavulin from Isle of Islay) and quietly proposed a proud toast to Australia and the Founding Fathers who brought our nation into being on I January, 1901.

I do this in acknowledgement of the undeniable fact that until the first day of 1901 there was no nation of Australia. That’s the day that 6 independent colonies came together to create our nation. It is the only day on which we can celebrate Australia Day. All other possible days that are suggested from time to time are cosmetic attempts to pretend to celebrate our nationhood.

26 January is quite clearly the wrong day for several valid reasons.

It is the day when the British created a jail for several shiploads of their convicts, plus the many shiploads that followed. They treated all of them brutally. I am descended from a convict (and proud of it). Why should I celebrate anything to do with the British inflicting agony upon him?

May I also ask why I should celebrate a day in which the British invaded a continent and began to steal it from its indigenous owners who had been here for 65000 years?

This totally unjustifiable invasion led to a war of occupation that lasted 100 years during which 30000 aborigines were shot defending the land that was theirs and another 100,000 died from diseases of civilisation brought by the invaders.

Do we really want to celebrate theft, murder and brutality? Fact is we have done so by accident. We simply started celebrating 26 January without giving any real thought as to what the day actually represents.

I cannot understand why we have any need to celebrate on 26 January when we all know that the rightful and only day to celebrate Australia Day is 1 January. It is a fact of history we have chosen to deny.

People who love public holidays say to me that if we celebrate on 1 January it will deprive them of the public holiday we are used to having on 26 January. They oppose any change because of that gross deprivation alone. Aborigines and convicts and the nation building of the Founding Fathers pale into insignificance for them compared with the loss of a public holiday.

However, we should all note that it will be no problem at all for our federal government to declare a replacement public holiday later in the year, hopefully to celebrate ENVIRONMENT DAY when we can plant trees and commit ourselves to stop polluting Australia.

Celebrating Australia Day correctly on New Years Day will also highlight positively our need to sadly note that our Founding Fathers did not acknowledge our Indigenous Heritage in our Constitution. Actually, they had no option as our State Governments insisted on retaining control of Aborigines and threatened to call off the Federation Movement had Aborigines been mentioned. Indeed, New Zealand withdrew from the proposed Federation because they wanted the status of Maoris recorded in the Constitution and their request was bluntly rejected by all 6 States.

However, we can do something positive towards correcting this huge error later this year by voting YES in the Voice Referendum.

May I say in closing that the dumbest thing about 26 January is that it occurs just at the time when our schools begin their year. We give students another holiday when they have just completed 6 weeks of holidays. Unbelievable really.

My regular readers will note that I hammer away about the disaster of 26 January every year. May I say that I will continue to do so until I take my last breath.

It is simply wrong (and stupid).

Which reminds me of another fact. 26 January is only New South Wales Day. The other five States were founded on different dates and treasure their first settlement just as proudly as NSW.

Your fair dinkum Aussie Mate

Everald

PS. You will note that I have featured below a great book by a fine Australian author Thomas Keneally. It is called A BLOODY GOOD RANT. This is a splendid description of my words above. It is also a great read that stimulates the mind. You will come across a number of chapters in which he makes very thought provoking comments about our image of Australia and our unintentional denial of our history.

BILL TO ESTABLISH VOICE PRIOR TO REFERENDUM

On By Everald ComptonIn Constitution, Government, History, Referendum

As a committed YES voter and positive campaigner in the Referendum on VOICE, I request that a Bill containing this wording be passed by the Parliament of Australia immediately so that it will become law automatically when the Referendum is passed and cannot be altered without another referendum being held.

‘An ABORIGINAL and TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER VOICE will be established by adding these words to the Constitution of Australia.

Voice will have 35 Members who are Indigenous Citizens elected by Indigenous Voters for a five year term.

Each State shall elect 5 members, Northern Territory 4 and Australian Capital Territory 1.

Their election will be arranged and implemented by the Australian Electoral Commission.

The Rules and Procedures for the work of VOICE will be determined by Act of Parliament as will its annual operating Budget.

Voice will meet 4 times annually for one week on each occasion.

Its Members will debate and submit policies applicable to the livelihood of Indigenous Australians, especially a preamble to the Constitution and the wording of a Treaty that sets out their sovereign rights.

The policies will be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives who will make appropriate arrangements for both Houses of Parliament to consider them.

Parliament will be under no obligation to accept them but the Speaker will convey a response to VOICE within reasonable time on each occasion.

This legislation automatically becomes law on the passing of the Referendum.’

EVERALD COMPTON AO

2023: THE YEAR OF LIVING CURIOUSLY.

On By Everald ComptonIn Good Books, Government, History, religion

I have given up on making new year resolutions. Most of them are dreams.

In 2023, I will concentrate on ATTITUDE CHANGE.

Am intending to take a searching look at my usual habits and gradually improve them, making radical changes if necessary.

I will commence by being curious about every challenge that faces me.

Before charging in to fix it, I will get CURIOUS and ask ‘why did this happen, can it be fixed by simple commonsense, is there a new way to fix it that has not been tried before, can it be done without generating anger and distrust while fostering goodwill and community spirit?’

I intend to base it on the thoughts expressed in a highly popular television series many decades ago by Professor Julius Sumner Miller. He called it WHY IS IT SO? His philosophy was to face every challenge by asking HOW DID THIS HAPPEN and WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO SOLVE THIS. Do nothing without first becoming CURIOUS.

So it will be that with family, business, politics and religion I will get ultra CURIOUS in 2023.

But I will not just get live on curiosity. This will be useless unless I then act decisively to act, create and resolve. Results must be achieved otherwise I am wasting my life and doing nothing to lift the lives of others.

I need a base from which to start.

My 91 years of experience of life will help but I need to be across what is happening right now that can help me in becoming adequately curious.

You will note from the image below that I am reading a selection of essays on what we can learn from 2022 to prepare us for 2023. They are written by top quality academics from the Universities of Australia who write splendid articles for publication daily in a news service called CONVERSATIONS that you can discover on Google. Their writing will help us to get CURIOUS about how we can do much better in 2023. I recommend that you buy and enjoy the book. Its a good read.

I am also basing my venture into the realm of the curious on the inspiration given to us by extraordinary leaders whose lives, in life or death, impacted us in 2022.

My hero of the year is President Zelensky of Ukraine. A great leader of huge courage and ability.

Also Elizabeth11 – grace, dignity, calm, wisdom, longevity.

Mikhail Gorbachev – with huge courage he destroyed communism and paid a great personal price for doing so.

Sidney Poitier – magnificent talent as an actor who tried valiantly to close the racial divide.

Roger Federer – as graceful and talented a tennis player as ever graced a court and an inspirational person of huge generosity. In old fashioned terms, an absolute gentleman.

However, nothing will be possible without a core set of values on which I base my life and this means that any success I can achieve will be founded on my performance as a committed working partner of Jesus of Nazareth in constantly trying to have a creative role in achieving a better world.

So, a great year lies ahead in 2023.

It will be as good as we make it personally. It will be utterly pointless blaming politicians and everyone else for our problems. Our fate is entirely in our own hands.

But let us not forget that our first and correct and most positive challenge is to get CURIOUS.

Enjoy a happy, prosperous, satisfying year of achievement that you share with family and friends in creating a better society than we now have.

Shalom,

Everald

And don’t forget to get fired up for 2023 by reading my 3 books.

THE MAN ON THE TWENTY DOLLAR NOTES

DINNER WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS

A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET.

And watch out for the publication of my new one that will hit the bookshops at Easter

CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN – for a journey through history.

Go to my books website

https://EveraldBooks.com

, , ,
, , ,

‘IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER’

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, religion

Christianity has not had a good year. Nor have some of its Churches.

Quite clearly, its time for all genuine believers to do something positive to reverse the negative trend that is diminishing an important cornerstone of our society.

Let me outline a few of the high profile religious negatives that have occurred and note that every one of them was avoidable.

*Just a few days ago, 3 demented people who convinced themselves that they were carrying out God’s will, murdered two police officers and a neighbour at a rural property in Queensland in a cold blooded manner that chilled us to the depth of our souls and shook Australia to the core.

*A few months earlier, several irresponsible members of an ultra religious family in Toowoomba were charged with murder for failing to give medication to a very ill child who ultimately died. They declared that their reading of the Bible assured them that the use of such medication was against the will of God.

*Recently, a leading Churchman was reported by Murdoch media as saying that it was very difficult for a priest to give the last rites to anyone who chose Voluntary Assisted Dying. Hard to understand why it was worth a comment as the fact is that believers who pray regularly know that God hears our prayers with or without a priest being present.

*The Russian Orthodox Church has formally approved the invasion of Ukraine and blessed Putin. Their aim is to regain control the Ukraine Orthodox Church which broke away from them when the Soviet Union broke up. The fact that many people will die while they make their takeover bid is apparently God’s will.

*More paedophile priests have been discovered throughout 2022 & more will be discovered in 2023. The recent Royal Commission on Child Abuse has had little effect.

*The so called Christian Right has been highly active in demeaning the faith within the Parliaments of Australia, making appalling decisions at prayer meetings where they said they acted on God’s will. They have crippled the once great Party founded by Robert Menzies, a committed Presbyterian who did not ever use his faith to gain political advantage.

*A powerful Christian Lobby will have a leadership role in a campaign to defeat the Voice Referendum for reasons that appear to be racist. They are entitled to vote in whatever way they want to, but it is difficult to understand why they need to publicise it as a Christian act when many traditional Christians may quietly vote Yes,

*Some Churches have gained government grants with the stated aim of helping the poor, but have used the grants solely to promote their brand of Christianity. Law breaking is not a Christian vocation.

I could list more but those are enough to highlight the fact that the stature and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth is being demeaned for no valid reasons.

May I just say this?

From the day when my mother first took me to Church 90 years ago, I have been a committed working partner of Jesus of Nazareth, a great person who is worth following.

At no point in my life have I ever experienced a conversion event. I simply grew in the faith year by year and have never regretted it.

My faith journey reminds me there is not much that you and I can do to fix any of the religious outrages I have listed above. Hopefully, we can safely leave most of it to be handled by the lawmakers of our nation.

However, I know I have one clear calling and that is to walk daily with my role model, Jesus of Nazareth, to help Him create a better and more compassionate world.

In doing so, a clear challenge of my calling is to invite others to join me on my walk and share in the privilege of serving humanity as an article of faith.

In this way, it may well be that distortions of the faith made in the Name of the Father will steadily fade away.

Grace and Peace

Everald

Pictured below is the Aspley Uniting Church at which I have been a long time Member and Elder. Like Churches everywhere we face the challenge of reaching out to the community in new ways to share the many difficult issues we all face daily.

NO POLITICAL PARTY IN AUSTRALIA REPRESENTS TRADITIONAL CONSERVATIVES.

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Good Books, Government, History

I grew up in a conservative family during The Great Depression of the 1930’s.

My mother was the granddaughter of a Lutheran Missionary and the daughter of a devout Presbyterian Elder.

My Dad was a hard working and very reliable labourer who was a faithful member of the right wing Australian Workers Union and a devoted follower of Edward Theodore, the most financially conservative Treasurer the Labor Party has ever produced.

With the benefit of their example, I grew up with a set of values that have been a cornerstone of my life and remain with me to this day.

Those values are not based on any ideology or theology.

They are basic and clear.

Let me list a few of them.

*Work hard and always do more than you are paid for.

*Save hard and be ready for tough times.

*Give away all you can. It puts power into your life.

*Learn skills and use them to find better ways to do your work.

*Never look backwards.

*When you are down, get up and start again.

*Dream visionary dreams and reach for the stars, always taking careful steps forward.

*Never leave your mates behind. Always pick them up when they are down.

*Be a committed working partner of Jesus of Nazareth and walk with him to create a better world.

*Treat everyone the same, no matter what their race or religion or social status may be.

*Foster the politics of commonsense.

*Apologise when you are wrong.

*Never end a day with harsh words.

*In all your dealings, make sure both sides win.

So, I look at the world of today, which is far different to my world of 9 decades ago, and ask if most people still live by these values. I find that the answer is NO. I reckon this is so because few leaders – political, financial or religious – are committed to those values.

Certainly, no political parties spell them out as their basic policies.

So called Conservative Parties are guilty of persistently promoting greed and power and privilege. They have no fundamental core of values and are mostly controlled by those who call themselves the Christian Right but are not Christian. They are more like bigots.

Parties that can be identified as being in the socialist realm go to extremes in trying to change the world by replacing traditional values with short term trends towards progress and rewriting history without putting anything solid in its place.

The only home where traditional conservatives like me can find a meaningful place is in the political centre where the ideology of commonsense prevails. From there, we will always be able to look at every issue and ask,

What is the commonsense way to fix this?

And to hell with the stupidity of both capitalism and socialism.

At this moment, Independents are the only politicians who are trying to occupy the centre ground and move forward with commonsense. The others are hide bound by the rules and ancient dogmas of their Parties and the primitive beliefs that they cling to.

My valued friend, Tony Windsor, was a fine example of how a quality Independent works. Still is.

History records that he, as an Independent, held the casting vote in the New South Wales Parliament during the term of a Liberal minority government led by Nick Greiner, and in the Federal Parliament when Julia Gillard’s Labor Government survived in the minority.

If you ask both Gillard and Greiner, they will affirm that, with every piece of legislation they put forward, Tony Windsor would put it through the COMMONSENSE TEST. If it did not stack up, he would refuse to vote for it and they would have to go back to the drawing boards.

Read his book, WINDSOR’S WAY and be inspired by the story. It is a great read. I know because I wrote the Foreword.

So, I invite you to join me as a TRADITIONAL CONSERVATIVE who is an enthusiastic REFORMER. Indeed, it is not possible to be a genuine conservative without being a progressive reformer. If you don’t want to be a reformer, it means that you may be a fascist.

We will be grounded in our values and use them as our cornerstone on which we will significantly reform and enhance the world by using by using the most powerful weapon on the planet. COMMONSENSE.

Cheers

Everald

Descendant of a convict sent out to Australia from England in 1831 for stealing a bed.

He used COMMONSENSE to eventually earn a pardon.

Then he worked hard and saved hard as a solid, middle of the road Conservative. When he died, he owned 5 workers cottages in Maitland obtained by investing with COMMONSENSE.

VOICE

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Constitution, Elections, Government, History, Law, Referendum, Uluru

Sometime during the second half of 2023, we will be given the opportunity to vote YES or NO in what will be known as the VOICE REFERENDUM that arises from the ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART.

As announced by the Prime Minister earlier this year, a YES vote in the Referendum will create an amendment to the Australian Constitution that will enable Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders to participate in a democratic election to establish a VOICE which will meet regularly to recommend policies to the Australian Parliament which will have the total authority to accept or reject them.

After the Referendum, Parliament will debate and enact a Bill that creates the rules that will apply to the way in which the VOICE is elected and operates.

In reality it is quite simply a positive step forward in integrating 65000 years of heritage into our Constitution and our life as a nation.

I will vote YES and actively campaign for a Yes vote.

In doing this, I am well aware that a significant number of my friends intend to vote NO and have carefully considered reasons for doing so. I respect their right to vote according to their conscience.

Here are some of their reasons for voting NO.

*Australia is a nation that already has a voice – our Federal Parliament – to which we have elected a significant number of indigenous parliamentarians.

*The Voice will create apartheid.

*Australia provides billions of dollars to Indigenous people every year and this has been wasted. No matter what is done for them, they are ungrateful and will always want more.

*The establishment of a Voice will not solve the problems that are ingrained in indigenous society such as crime, unemployment, alcohol, drugs, health, housing, domestic violence, poor education and lack of skills.

*It is only city aborigines who want a Voice. Country aborigines have no interest in it.

*A Treaty, based on the Waitangi Treaty of New Zealand, would achieve more.

In response to these concerns and beliefs, I tell my friends the reasons why I will vote YES.

*Indigenous people were excluded from the Australian Constitution in 1901. This was an insult and a mistake which must be rectified now.

*When Britain, in 1788, invaded the continent we now call Australia, they stole land which had been occupied by indigenous people for 65000 years. The welfare that is now given to them is a tiny fraction of the value of their land that they have never ceded.

*100 tribes of Indigenous people have never been able to speak to the Australian Parliament with one democratically elected Voice. Previous institutions have been comprised of political appointees who did the will of the governments that appointed them.

*White people have always decided what is best for aborigines, never the reverse.

*Defeating the referendum will achieve nothing. This issue will never go away. We will just irresponsibly kick the can down the road so our children and grandchildren will eventually have to do what we failed to do.

*It is quite simply the right and decent thing to do.

I am certain there are other important reasons why people will vote YES or NO and these will emerge during the referendum campaign. However, the ones I have outlined give an indication of the general scope of the forthcoming debate.

The Albanese Government will not provide funding for either the YES or NO campaigns. Both sides are required to set up there own organising teams and raise their own funds. This is a good thing as it would be wrong for the government to be seen to be promoting YES even though it is a clear policy of the Labor Party. So, it must promote neither.

I have joined, as a volunteer, a significant group called FROM THE HEART and my role is to help organise a strong YES vote from the Senior Australians. My plan is to enlist as many older Aussies as possible to visit everyone in the streets around their own home to chat about the absolute common sense of having a VOICE. We won’t waste money on advertising. Face to face talking is the powerful way to sell this historic strengthening of our national life.

My gut feeling is that there is a significant task ahead.

Right now, my private polling of public opinion tells me that Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania are likely to vote NO and this will create a national defeat of VOICE as our Constitution says that a referendum cannot pass unless a majority of States vote YES.

I also suspect that Senior Australians will vote NO by a margin of 60/40 because of ingrained negativity about all indigenous issues generated over many decades, but I think that a positive campaign could make it 50/50. Young voters will then take it over the victory line.

Overall, I reckon that with sincere and courteous campaigning the cause for YES can achieve a positive victory and I intend do my best to make it happen. My experience is that most older Australians are responsible people who will try to do the right thing for the good of Australia once they understand the issues at stake.

Creating a VOICE is clearly a nation building exercise that will benefit us all.

Nevertheless, I have an open mind to debate any better alternatives that sincere advocates put forward as this issue will never go away. Defeating it will achieve nil.

Grace and Peace in the spirit of ULURU. It is a symbol of unity.

Everald

‘I ACKNOWLEDGE THE PRESENCE IN THE HOUSE OF EVERALD COMPTON AO’.

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Constitution, Elections, Good Books, Government, History, Referendum

These friendly words of welcome were made last Wednesday by Hon. Milton Dick MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament.

I was visiting Parliament, negotiating on behalf of community projects in which I am personally involved, for the 121st time since my first visit there 66 years ago, covering an era in which 14 Prime Ministers have held office.

Milton had invited me to be his guest in the front row of the Speakers Gallery at Question Time, so I relaxed there as I took in the spectacle of Parliamentarians tearing one another apart – verbally – as usual.

During the proceedings, he announced my presence and the Members greeted me with warm applause. I was not expecting this, so I instantly decided that I better stand up and nod my thanks. This caused a bit more applause. I was quite moved by the honour, especially as the response came from all Parties in the Parliament, something that does not often happen in a Parliament that is constantly becoming more divided.

That same evening, Milton invited me to share an upmarket whisky with him and other MP’s in the Speakers Office as we chatted about political people and events over my six and a half decades as a visitor to Parliament. As we enjoyed our drinks, he asked me to express an opinion as to who were the best and worst Prime Ministers in my era. I responded that I have no doubt that Julia Gillard was the best and Scott Morrison the worst.

The visit to Parliament in this past week enabled me to have private meetings with 29 politicians and bureaucrats. I made sure that I covered Labor, Liberals, Nationals, Greens. Independents. This is a practice I have followed over all the years as I learned long ago that, to achieve anything significant at Parliament, it is vital to get as many people and parties onside as is possible.

On this occasion, at the conclusion of my three days there, I can say with confidence that I am pleased with the progress made with my projects, but am always aware that I should have done better,

I must mention that I found this Parliament, led by Anthony Albanese, to be a much more progressive place on sound government than those run by Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. They were consumed by the exercise of power whereas this one shows clear evidence of genuinely trying to achieve results in an ever changing and challenging world of huge social, economic and religious divisions. A totally different attitude prevails at this moment and I found it to be refreshing. My hope is that it will continue to be so.

Right now, the major political battlegrounds are in the fields of industrial relations, anti-corruption, robodebt, voluntary assisted dying, child care, climate, environment, voice referendum, aged care and skills shortage, with many other initiatives in the pipeline. It will be good for Australia if most are successful

A few matters are obvious headline gatherers that are worthy of special comment right now.

*The Voice Referendum is currently in trouble. I found only a few MP’s who are confident that it will pass as most of them feel that Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania will vote No. The Australian Constitution clearly states that a majority of States must vote Yes for any Referendum to pass on the issue of constitutional change. I will vote Yes and will campaign strongly to secure an overall Yes vote as it is fundamentally wrong for Australia to have a Constitution that does recognise 65000 years of indigenous heritage. However, it will require a a well planned and very positive campaign to secure a Voice to that heritage.

*Along with the political demise of Scott Morrison, the power of the Christian Right has faded considerably in the current Parliament. I doubt that it will ever regain its influence as most Christians are in the centre ground of politics, not out on the extremes of the right.

*Many veteran Nationals and Liberals in Parliament intend to retire at the 2025 Election. They are resigned to the inevitability that Anthony Albanese will enjoy two terms as Prime Minister and Jim Chalmers will follow him for at least another 2 terms. They do not want to be in the political wilderness for so many long years. I can understand their feelings on this matter but the key issue is this. Can they find replacements who are Prime Minister material? This task is of great importance as they do not have anyone in their ranks at this moment who is electable as Leader of our nation. As matters stand at present, they are obviously very weak as the official Opposition. This is shown by their consistently poor performances at Question Time. Too many of their questions are embarrassingly ridiculous.

*The TEALS and other Independents are not political amateurs. They are preforming with positive credibility and getting results. One example of this is the humble but powerful performance of David Pocock in gaining amendments to Industrial Relations legislation.

So there it is for now.

Many things can change in a hurry in politics, so nothing is certain. But, for now, the new Labor government is doing better than most people expected.

I will be back there in Canberra in February. It may be a different world by then. Who knows.

But let me close by saying that I will never ever forget my first meeting with Sir Robert Menzies way back in 1956. He had a commanding presence and looked and acted like a Prime Minister of huge distinction. The key issue to remember is that he clearly occupied the centre ground of politics. It was obvious that he was a genuine Liberal. He was not a Conservative. The future of Australian politics will always be in the Centre. The LNP must get back there in a hurry or remain in the lonely wilderness for decades.

Yours with an open mind.

Everald

My book DINNER WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS is enjoying increasing sales. Many Australians are realising that to vote in the voice referendum, they must have some knowledge of what our Founding Fathers put into the Constitution. My book is written as a thriller in which Barton, Deakin, Griffith, Kingston, Forrest etc are the very credible heroes.

Go to my books website, EveraldBooks.com, to place an order for it (and my other books).

MY BOOKS ARE A GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT. 50 DOLLARS BUYS ALL 3 OF THEM POSTAGE FREE.

On By Everald ComptonIn Good Books, History

Want to give a valued friend an interesting Christmas present?

May I humbly suggest that you just can’t do better than giving your friend all three of my books?

This is the way you and I will personalise the deal.

I will write your friend’s name in each one, add a greeting from you and me and sign them.

The packet will be posted directly to them so it arrives in the week before Christmas.

Placing a Christmas Order with me is very easy.

Send an email to me at the address for my book sales,

everald@bigpond.com

Give me the name and postal address of your friend as well as your mobile number. Include details of the greeting you want me to write in the book.

I will send you an email confirming your order and giving you my bank details so you can remit 50 dollars to me.

My three books are pictured below.

DINNER WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS tells the inspirational tale of how the new nation of Australia was founded in 1901.

A BEAUTIFUL SUNSET is a gripping novel about a man with a terminal illness who decides to make the final three months of life the greatest of all his days.

THE MAN ON THE TWENTY DOLLAR NOTES is a powerful history of the greatest nation builder Australia has ever produced – John Flynn, Flynn of the Inland.

50% of the royalties on my book sales are given to ACTS, the community service arm of the Aspley Uniting Church, of which I am Chair. It gives direct cash grants to people who are in genuine need such as victims of floods, fires, droughts, domestic violence and poverty.

Send your email to me right now so an old bloke like me has time to get all the orders ready to post in mid December.

One more thought.

If you would like to enjoy my three books for your own Christmas holiday reading, or make it a gift to one of your family, the same deal of 50 dollars free of postage still applies. I will personalise and sign them for you and post them right away.

Either way, I will watch out for your email.

Cheers

Everald

PS. Some advance news. My next book CATCHING THE LINVILLE TRAIN is now with my publishers, Echo Books. It will be available for your Easter holidays next year.

THE MAGNIFICENT LEGEND OF HUDSON FYSH

On By Everald ComptonIn Business and Enterprise, Community and Values, Good Books, History

Exactly 100 years ago this month, a passionate aviator, Hudson Fysh, flew a light plane that carried just one passenger out of a rough airfield at Cloncurry in north western Queensland to launch a new airline that he had just founded. He called his pioneering venture Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services. To keep it simple, the locals called it QANTAS, a revered name that will carry it into its second century.

While Fysh had a vision for it to become the finest bush airline in Australia, little did he realise that it would one day become an international airline of considerable significance and longevity.

Fact is that Fysh was a World War 1 veteran who had returned home after serving in the fledgling Royal Australian Air Force, mainly in Palestine. He had no money, but had managed to convince some eminent Western Queensland cattle men to back him as the initial investors. He went very close to bankruptcy several times in the early years of QANTAS, but battled on tenaciously to bring his dream to reality and success.

Even in those early tough years, he also provided a great community service to Inland Australia by joining with John Flynn, Flynn of the Inland, to create the Flying Doctor Service. He and Flynn fostered a partnership that flew doctors and nurses to very remote places to save lives, often in dramatic circumstances. For 90% of those flights there was no airstrips in places where people were injured or ill. So they landed valiantly on either unpaved roads or in large paddocks, but did not ever damage a plane or kill a patient. It was an incredible achievement.

Now, an eminent Australian historian, Grantlee Kieza, has written a superb book about Hudson Fysh that has just reached the book shops. Grantlee has given me an advance copy and I can tell you that it is a splendid read about an inspirational human being. I strongly recommend that you buy and enjoy it.

I especially recommend it as I want you to discover that Grantlee has generously dedicated the book to me. The citation, that I have photographed below, reads,

‘For Everald Compton, a nation builder who like Hudson Fysh has encouraged so many Australians to soar.’

I am enormously proud of those words and I gratefully thank Grantlee for them, even though I know that I don’t deserve his accolade.

But any mention of nation builders anywhere reminds us that the noble building a nation is not of much interest to most Aussies. Our nation has too many people who are capitalists with a goal of plundering the economy and there are too many socialists who are convinced that Australia owes them a living permanently. Only a few believe in a society that fosters the ideal of a SHARED GOOD in which we seek to excel.

Grantlee has, during his distinguished career as an author, written several fine books about great Australians who contributed mightily to our nation. I have read many of them and particularly enjoyed four of them. MACQUARIE tells us about our finest Governor who changed our country from being a penal colony to become a prosperous civilisation. HENRY LAWSON and BANJO PATTERSON tell us of how Australia produced literary giants who ranked highly internationally, while MONASH tells us how valiant Australian leadership hastened the end of World War 1 by winning a famous victory against Germany at the battle of Villiers Bretonneux in northern France. He has several more books such as those four in the pipeline.

My own books pale into insignificance in comparison to Grantlee’s literary skills even though THE MAN ON THE TWENTY DOLLAR NOTES (about Flynn of the Inland) and DINNER WITH THE FOUNDING FATHERS (about the creators of the Australian nation, Barton and Deakin, and their eminent team) have sold well and are steadily growing in popularity.

Sadly, QANTAS today would bring tears to the eyes of Hudson Fysh. It is a pale shadow of its former greatness, having alienated far too many of its loyal passengers with very ordinary and unreliable service. I have been flying with them for 70 years now but they cancelled my membership of their Chairman’s Lounge because I am ‘too old’ to be a regular passenger. Fysh would never have done that to me.

This insult, however, does not deter me from flying with them on most occasions that I travel as I want to continue to show my respect to their gallant founder, HUDSON FYSH, a very great Australian. Indeed, one of the very greatest.

The thoughts of a proud Aussie.

Everald

THE MURDER OF CASSIUS TURVEY

On By Everald ComptonIn Community and Values, Constitution, Government, History, Referendum, religion

Three weeks ago, a young Indigenous Aussie, just 15 years old, was peacefully walking home with his friends from the school they attended at Middle Swan in Western Australia.

His name was CASSIUS TURVEY.

They were attacked by a 21 year old man who hit him, and some of his friends, with an iron pole. He died two weeks later and his attacker has been charged with murder.

When he was laid to rest this week in the ancient and splendidly spiritual traditions of his ancestors, there was a genuine outpouring of grief across Australia as people of many cultures and religions met to light candles of remembrance. These gatherings were not organised as a part of any campaign against racists. They just happened. Indeed, the family of Cassius asked that his death not be used in any way as part of a political campaign.

Certainly, most of us do not want a nationwide crusade similar to that which happened when George Floyd was murdered by 4 police in USA. That incident was not a show of grief. It was as close to anarchy as it was possible to get. Simply, it was naked political unrest fostered by extremists who capitalised on the sincere feelings of many peace loving Americans who were appalled at Floyd’s death.

The death of Cassius is a stark reminder to all of us that we live in a violent society that is growing in its incidence of brutality for no valid reason.

This has been fostered by the ever growing use of hostile and insulting words that millions of us use every day in the normal course of our lives.

I cringe when politicians abuse one another in Parliament on every occasion they can. They set a dreadful example to the nation of disrespect and intolerance.

Media stirs divisions among us every minute of every hour of every day by creating controversial headlines that are blatant lies designed to divide society into warring factions that will support whatever sick ideology they are fostering at the time.

Social media is the worst centre of abuse by far. The bitterness, nastiness and lies that are spewed out every day are hugely disgraceful. So much so that I have recently taken up the practice of instantly blocking any follower or reader who is even slightly abusive, vulgar or hypocritical. We do not need them in our society in any shape or form.

We can commence our crusade against abuse by the way in which we participate in the debate during the forthcoming Referendum which will be held in Australia sometime during 2023 on the creation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander VOICE.

This referendum has the capacity to create huge social divisions across the nation, not because there is anything illegal or divisive or dishonorable about it, but simply because it will give racists and bullies a respectable platform to vent their appalling spleen across our society and try their very best to divide us into warring factions.

I intend to campaign strongly for a YES Vote simply because I passionately believe it is time to recognise in the Australian Constitution the 65000 years of Indigenous heritage of our nation. This was deliberately omitted when our Constitution was written and voted on in 1901.

However, I will use no nasty language and I will respect the right of opponents to express their differing views as citizens of a democratic nation. If ever I overstep the mark, I will apologise sincerely.

My profound hope is that Australia will grow as a nation that has a predominantly cohesive society and that, in the years ahead, young Aussies like CASSIUS will be able to live with an expectation of security in a peaceful community, no matter whether they are black or white or of any other ethnic group or religion or culture.

May I say this in closing.

I did not attend a public gathering for CASSIUS. I paused for a few moments at my home to quietly shed a tear for him. He died before he had the opportunity to play the music that was in his soul. There and then, I made a quiet commitment to work relentlessly to foster a nation of peace.

And I now remember the words of the great English poet, John Donne, (amended to remove the word Man).

‘The death of any person diminishes me as I am involved in humankind. Therefore, never ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for you.’

Sincerely,

Everald Compton