Dear LPG readers,

Please don’t think I am trying to start a political discussion here, but after a year that has included two of the most controversial elections I can remember, I think something needs to be said.  

One of the most important reasons I need to keep my message away from any hint of political notions is that I have very little idea of what goes on out there. But I think that after spending the morning of both July 5th and November 6th listening to nothing but television news about the results, consequences and general election fall-out that the counting of national voting slips made, I have even less idea of where either of the nations involved are going, but one thing did occur to me.

I don’t think that anyone will have managed to be part of either of those days without finding themselves agreeing or disagreeing with one of the many opinions that were offered by the media or even someone who they talked to on that day, even though most of my friends are about as well informed as I on such topics.  

Nearly everyone I talked to, for days before and days after those two elections, had an opinion about what advice they would give the new leaders of those two political worlds. Those who did not, most probably pleaded ignorance, but I also bet that there was some essence of agreement or disagreement deep down in the nether regions of their thoughts. 

 When we offer our two-penny's worth of personal insight, whether to anyone else or just ourselves, many of us conclude that whatever our thoughts are, they will never be considered anyway. I have often heard some relevant idea followed by, ‘But no one will ever listen to me.’   

I know that whatever the subject, political or otherwise, many of us keep our thoughts to ourselves for fear of being thought of as stupid or as one of those people  offering a  somewhat  radical opinion, even though that radical idea might have made all the positive difference.

When it comes to thinking, Aristotle did a lot of it back in the 4th century BC, and he concluded that we humans are all political animals.  Few people did not worry about someone other than themselves during their lifetime, and wanting better for us and our fellow man is the basic definition of politics.  

While the word politics evokes thoughts of governing a nation to most, many more things need to be governed, often by unwritten rules.  When thinking about personal government, we each have a code of rules that dictates when we get up in the morning and how we treat the people we know.  We all remember parental government when we were not allowed to do this or that as children.  There is a social government where we have a few ideas about improving a day centre or social club.  That is where it starts, but some might be more interested in the more significant social questions.  Is there something that might improve the transport system, or can you think of a new way to make IT literacy more accessible for older people?     

While the powers that be think they have all the answers, the odd decision is based on an excellent idea that a member of the public first came up with.  

So perhaps it is time to exercise our political muscles now and then, even if all that means is that we make our ideas, however insignificant they might seem, known to the people who can act on them… 

IG, Bellingham 

IG offers a little more about what Aristotle had to say and a website that might fire your thoughts on some item of local  law that needs updating… 

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