“The message to Albo was to step up and be a leader responsive to community sentiment. The message came from a range of recognised leaders who were giving him the chance to redeem himself. He did.” HUGH SELBY argues the the virtues of battling adversity together. 

Close by Victoria’s Castlemaine, Harcourt town residents Jess Bell, her husband John and dad Jim are all volunteer firefighters and helped battle the recent blaze. They were lucky: their house survived. Others lost their properties.

“Our hearts are so broken but simultaneously so full after battling with our CFA (Country Fire Authority) friends and our community,” Ms Bell is quoted as saying.

Battling adversity together, that’s what Ms Bell shared with everyone. She was describing battles for life and property that are, at heart, battles for the future.

There are those on the frontlines and those who enable and sustain those frontline efforts. That’s true community.

Our favourite sports, too, are battles, not life threatening, but still serious.

Just as fire fighters need teams behind them to maintain the equipment and provide food and drink, and a place to rest, so sports teams at every level need community support.

Here’s an old guy’s description of his and others’ efforts, several times each week for an AFL team: “I work with the property manager, preparing for the training session. 

“For set up, we erect a couple of marquees, prepare the drink tubs and fill the drink bottles, put out the tackle pads, bibs, cones, towels, balls. 

“During the training, we take drinks/towels to the players in between drills, refill the tubs/bottles, kick the footies back to the players from the goal square and help out wherever necessary.

“Afterwards, we pack up, wash tubs and bottles and put bibs/jumpers/towels in the washing machine. It’s a serious workout, especially as we carry everything up the ‘race’ and on to the ground”.

It’s not just old guys who do this work. There are many thousands of mums and dads involved in supporting kids’ sports every weekend.

Apart from these physical battlegrounds, the election battles for “our hearts and minds” require the candidates to be supported by a team of committed volunteers. The letterbox drops, the roadside corflutes, the polling-place “how-to-vote” teams all depend upon nameless supporters who, in turn, are organised by other volunteers.

All of which demonstrates that behind the short-lived “news” of disasters met, resilience, sporting triumphs and election victories there are unremarked support troops of committed people with shared values and resolve. 

And in the absence of that support what happens?

When leaders lead

For the most part, nothing happens, which makes the much publicised “groupie” open letters of the past couple of weeks so surprising.

Recall the 130-signature leaders’ letter, and the 60 strong sports identities letter, both calling for a royal commission into the Bondi massacre.

Whatever did or didn’t happen behind closed doors, the public perception is that those letters did what media and individual calls failed to do: change Albo’s mind.

The latest open letter signal is from the leaders of various national banks around the world calling out the latest misuse of the US legal system by the Nero-like Emperor Donnie and his band of sycophantic, crooked cronies.

Learning nothing from their recent failed attempt to exact revenge on former FBI Director James Comey for not licking Donnie’s boots, they are now intent on destroying Jerome Powell. 

A dozen central bank chiefs, including our Reserve Bank governor, Michele Bullock, have signed their names in support of Powell.

“We stand in full solidarity with the Federal Reserve System and its Chair Jerome H. Powell,” they say. 

“The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve.

“It is therefore critical to preserve that independence, with full respect for the rule of law and democratic accountability.”

Creating an effective weapon

We read or hear about these open letters. We may even read them. What we don’t do is turn our mind to how they came to be, or their drafting.

The latter is an exercise in reaching a common position that will attract signatures, seem to be patient and reasonable, but presenting a real, not idle threat to the recipient politician that turning a blind eye brings danger.

One or more of the possible signatories has the open letter concept and an initial message idea. Then they contact the fellow possibles, make a successful pitch, and work for a common position. They are battling adversity together.

The 130 signatures letter to Albo was created over a holiday period when, no doubt, many of those approached were not at their work places, so more than the usual effort would have been needed to contact and follow up. 

An open letter is drafted and redrafted. It must be acceptable to every signatory, but achieve the highest possible statement of shared beliefs. 

That requires listening, being seen and heard to be properly responsive to a range of views, something of a wordsmith, and able to both incite and smooth strong egos. All of that is time consuming and, along the way, likely to be frustrating.

The message to Albo was to stop putting his head in the sand, to step up and be a leader properly aware of, and responsive to, widespread community sentiment. The message came from a range of recognised leaders who were giving him a fail grade but the chance to redeem himself. He did. 

That’s not a message that would work with a super-narcissist emperor. When he looks in the mirror he sees only what he wants to see, Trump by name and trump by nature.

Read again these words in the world bankers’ message: “The independence of central banks is a cornerstone of price, financial and economic stability in the interest of the citizens that we serve”,

They are not wasting their time on Trump. This is a message to those who chose to use their wealth to support him, or who saw his victory as a way to quickly acquire riches: your wealth is at risk unless you rein him in.

For those people, exposure of the emperor’s many failings is of no interest. For so long as he is emperor and the carpetbagging opportunities are unlimited they will gaze like Midas of old upon the treasure troves: until there is a sense of fear, fear of loss.

A failed cornerstone leads to collapse.

We should watch for disturbances on Donnie’s stage, signs that his support base is developing cracks. He won’t change for the bankers. He will change if his funding supporters are deserting him in droves.