Rob Rattenbury: Why I keep an open mind

Not every house had a phone or even electricity in the not-so-distant past.

Comment

When I started writing this column I began with the intention of writing about anything and the support to do so.

Some columnists are single-subject or specialty writers. They tend to have very sound knowledge and opinions about certain matters and do the job well. I enjoy reading their views.

I’m more your broad-brush kind of guy. I like to give everything a crack, from nostalgic memories to our employees in Parliament.

In my opinion, those dwellers of the Beehive need as much scrutiny and comment as possible. They need to have an eye kept on them otherwise they start thinking too much for themselves. That’s not what they were put there for by us. They are there to do as we need or to hold to account the crowd across the house that is having the current say in spending our hard-earned taxes.

There are some subjects I keep away from though. I tend to give climate change issues a miss. I do not consider I am qualified to pontificate on matters that I do not really have a handle on. Best left to those specialty columnists who likely paid more attention in science at school than I bothered to.

All I know is that it seems a bit warmer nowadays than in previous years. May be just my imagination, but is the warm part of the year getting longer?

I like to write about some Treaty of Waitangi issues but with a very open style. Again my knowledge of the contents and meaning of the Treaty document could be better.

I have read up a bit on it but the more I read the more confused I become. That’s the challenge about reading widely and having an open mind. A lot of stuff gets in and needs to be processed.

Then, if a column is due I will try to put it into some form of readable layperson’s format. A format that hopefully is entertaining and informative.

But not in too much depth as I am no expert on Treaty issues, again best left to the experts.

What I do know however is that the average New Zealander’s knowledge of the contents, meaning and interpretation of the Treaty is at best limited. With that lack of knowledge can follow generalisations and wrong-headed opinion.

With the new history curriculum arriving in schools hopefully, this will be addressed over the coming years. But those of us whose schooling days are well gone also need to update ourselves on matters.

Despite whoever of our employees are in charge of the Treasury benches in the big grey building on the hill, co-governance is going nowhere anytime soon. Both National and Labour support the concept to some extent or other.

Treaty matters and co-governance will be dominant in our news and our lives for many years yet.

All part of a healthy society trying to put matters to rest that need to be addressed.

I must admit I do enjoy writing about social history, especially about the history of our beautiful town. But also the recent history of how people lived from the 1920s to the 1980s. A time of huge change and progress in our world; a time that saw extraordinary scientific advances in all fields. But also a change in the way people lived, worked and played.

Simple articles about milk in glass bottles, going to the pictures, blackberrying, parents who did not have to worry so much about what their children were up to.

Children who were encouraged to be adventurous and daring within reason. Nostalgic words that, yes, probably appeal more to the over-50s reader. But they also give a glimpse of what life was like, way back when, to younger readers.

Even my children, now middle-aged, cannot believe that not every house had a phone or even electricity in the time their parents were born.

We are our history, the good and the bad. It is a pleasure to write about the simple stuff that is not world-changing or confronting to readers.

Lastly, I could, with my background, write about law and order issues, policing, and social comment on how our society seems to be struggling at the moment for various reasons, crime being one issue. I choose not to or rarely bother.

As a police officer I was always amazed how many people knew more about doing my job than I did, despite all the study, training, qualifications and experience I had. Everybody has an opinion on how to police our community.

I don’t judge our modern police. I will rarely comment on law and order issues. It is many years since those days for me and I am now not an expert. Again I will leave that to the others in our community who are. There are many.