All aboard The Black Steam Train

In todays crazy hyper-sensitive world where the slightest deviation away from the accepted orthodoxy of racial self identification can see you howled down as a raving redneck racist, it is quite refreshing to hear a new and (dare I say it) authentic voice to counter the cacophony of self-interest and self-promotion.

You see The Black Steam Train is the blog of a man who is proud to call himself Australian.

A man who has the strength of his convictions to stand up and make sensible arguments about one of the most contentions issues that we face in modern Australia today – Racial self identification.

The fact that most of us are not allowed to say, or even admit to thinking for that matter, exactly what The Black Steam Train talks about on his blog is indeed a sleight on how far off the track we have been taken by certain groups in modern day Australia.

The Black Steam Train’s latest post , Success – we like it white addresses an extremely important topic that goes straight to the heart of addressing racial disadvantage in Australia and how we as a society and indeed as a nation should be trying to help break the vicious cycle of racism, disadvantage and poverty by helping and assisting truly disadvantaged people in our community better themselves through education and meaningful employment.

I would wholeheartedly recommend that you spend some time reading Black Steam Train’s blog, or even better yet follow his blog because he sheds a unqiue light on a wide variety of topics from adoption, racism, nepotism and cronyism, and hypocrisy of the media from his very much lived experience as an Australian struggling against all of those ills.

A brave man who puts a lot of what we profess to care about into perspective, and all in a form that indicates that he has a very unique and talented mind.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?

James Patterson of the IPA explains the media regulation proposal

James Patterson, Communications Director of the Institute of Public Affairs, is a very impressive (dare I say it and betray my age) young man who one day will no doubt have a long career in politics, should he chose to take that path.

But at the moment he is at the forefront of the resistance to Senator Conroy’s media regulation “reforms” and here he calmly explains exactly why these “reforms” are a drastic overreach by Senator Conroy and Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Perhaps this man should have been America’s first black president?

With President Obama and Vice President Biden sitting on his right and a room full of the MSM, Dr Ben Carson delivers one of the most inspiring speeches that I have heard in many years.  Certainly more inspiring than anything I have heard delivered by any politician of any persuasion, but most particularly anything delivered by the 44th US President.

In this light perhaps we should actively heed Dr Carson’s advice about getting more educated people into politics like real doctors (not doctors of economics), and many, many less lawyers.

People who care naturally about other the welfare of others, not just in winning the contest.  Given the current political circumstance in Australian politics this statement rings even truer than it does in the US.

But back to Dr Carson’s speech.  It is brilliant.  You notice not that it’s 24 minutes long, because his message is so refreshingly simple, yet profound.  As they say in the classics, “Let’s go to  the tape…”

As you can see, it is a message of hope, direction, faith but most importantly about belief.  A belief in oneself, and others around you; that anything is possible in our world but ultimately, the only person who is responsible for you is you.

Nothing in life is impossible,nothing unachievable , no problem unsolvable but you must set your mind to achieving it.  And then you must do something about it.  If you do, then nothing will stop you.

History is littered with many inspiring men and women who dragged themselves and their families, and sometimes even whole peoples, out of the darkness and into the light by following this simple creed.

Dr Carson also touches on something that is clearly fundamental to the success of western civilisation.  Freedom of Speech.  The linchpin that is responsible for the rise of the most powerful civilisation that mankind has ever known.  Western civilisation.

Unfortunately this fundamental principle of our world is currently being eroded, cloaked in good intentions, yet sinister in it’s application.  Our freedom to speak our minds, to participate in the contest of words and ideas is at the lowest ebb that it’s been at for many, many decades.

A freedom that was won on fierce and deadly battlefields now long forgotten, by men seemingly forgotten in our contemporary histories, seems to be fading into the past like the ghosts of liberty that fought for it.

Political correctness and the obsession with protecting people’s feelings because they hear things that offend them is destroying our capacity to actually discuss solutions to the most critical of issues that face us as a people.

We must resist the temptation to damn, to silence, to hector.  We must debate, freely and robustly all of the issues and challenges that we face without fear or favour, for these are no trifling matters that we are confronted with.

Listen to Dr Carson’s story and tell me.  What kind of world do you want to live in?

I want to live in the world that he wants to live in.