Alan Jones’ foot in the mouth.

I totally disagree with the appalling comments made by Broadcaster Alan Jones that PM Julia Gillard’s father died of shame because she is telling lies. Yes, she told a big lie by saying, “There will be no carbon tax under a government I lead” and then reneging on it. However, this is no reason for Alan Jones to make such disparaging comments. Julia Gillard is our Prime Minister whether we like her or despise her; she deserves respect.

Telling fibs is part of a politician’s work manual, this is nothing surprising. Those denigrating comments will be counter productive and will go against the Liberal Party, who should have censured Jones immediately.

Alan Jones apologising is like wanting to unscramble an egg. In other words, if you hit somebody on the head with a cricket bat and then apologise, that will not take the pain away.

While the comments by Jones were a hit under the belt, and well over the top, we have to give him credit where credit is due. Jones is involved in many good causes, like for instance, bringing into the open the catastrophic effects of coal seam gas exploration and the disastrous effect it has on our food producing farmers. He has also justifiably chastised the duopoly of Woolworths and Coles - who are destroying our farmers with their actions. Now this, in my opinion, is more significant, than the unfortunate uttering by Alan Jones.  See also my previous posting. (Scroll down!)

The old adage: “Make sure your brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear,” is perhaps what Jones should adhere to.

Following is my own story. Perhaps Alan Jones could learn something from the moral at the bottom of my story. - Werner

The difficulty I had with saying, I’m sorry.
By Werner Schmidlin
When I was ten years old I was given a pocket knife for my birthday – it was the "In thing" in those days. To test the sharpness of this knife I went to a paddock full with fruit trees belonging to an elderly lady, and sliced some bark off one of the trees. I could have done the same on trees belonging to us, but I was smart enough not to use one of our trees as "sharpness tester," simple, because I would have been a suspect with my new knife, and I knew the consequences that would have come my way.

Unbeknown to me however, I was observed testing my knife by two of the neighbour’s kids and they reported my activity to the schoolteacher. The following day I was hauled before the teacher in front of the class and was "Pauline Hanson-ed’ – “Please explain!”
I could see that I it was useless to deny the tree-bark-slicing job, there were two witnesses against me, and I pleaded guilty. The Judge (teacher) said to me, I give you two options.

"One: You go and seal the wounds of that tree with wax, and then bandage it. Then you go to the old lady and apologise and say SORRY. I’ll give you one day to fix the tree up and one week to see the lady and say SORRY." He continued, "If you have not accomplished these two "assignments," a second option will come into play – I bring the matter to the attention of your parents". In those days parents and teachers were powerful forces, for whom one had great respect. (I wish this would still be the case today).

After school that day, I quietly went about my task and fixed up that tree. Then the hardest task, the apology, was in front of me. I made countless attempts to go to the lady and say SORRY, but I got no further than the front door of her house, with my finger bent and ready to knock on the door. But each time, I could not muster the courage to move my hand and knock on the door – and I went away - to try again later.

The seven-day deadline was approaching rapidly, and one the seventh day, finally, with a tremendous mental effort I mustered enough courage to knock at the lady’s front door. The lady opened the door (I can still see it today) and I said to her that I damaged one of her trees, that I had fixed it up and that I was SORRY. The lady smiled and said thank you for letting her know and that it was nice of me to say “Sorry.” I left with a good feeling of having done the right thing and as a reward a tremendous weight had come off my shoulders.

The moral of this story is: Not only did I learn a valuable lesson, but also, I swore to myself never ever to get myself into a situation when I would be required to say “I’m SORRY.” The lesson was: To think things through, always asking myself would I have to say "I’M SORRY" after saying or doing something. Only after careful weighing out every angle would I do or say something, and this principle is still with me today.

My thought for today. – Werner

Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them. Unknown
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