Mandy Nolan’s recent ‘sorry’ article struck a deep chord.
I sense many of us are yet to make the leap from saying sorry to acting sorry. We are complicit in supporting a system that largely marginalises and diminishes those disadvantaged within it.
I highly recommend watching this beautiful and eloquent discussion between Stan Grant and Dr Cornel West .
http:// www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/451860035927/awaken-cornel-west I offer myself as an example.
I write this from a ski lodge at Mt Buller.
Signs all around the resort implore me to enjoy MY holiday with MY crew.
I ski all day focusing on MY technique.
I get back to the lodge at night and listen to other similarly privileged white anglo saxons discussing their holiday homes, their mortgages, their super, their jobs, their promotions.
I sense large scale complicity.
I know I am not alone in lying in bed awake at 3am with fears and doubts spinning in my head compelling me to think of ways I can engage more ‘successfully’ with the system.
A system based on competition rewards individual ‘success’ generally to the detriment of ‘others’ unable to engage within if for whatever reason.
I sense the shift to ‘WE/OURS’ will create a system based on collaboration and supports ‘others’ to engage more fully within it.
Implicit in such a system are words such as Love, Trust, Sharing, Creativity and Community.
I agree saying sorry is a first step.
Beyond that I sense a need to act sorry.
A need to shift from thinking primarily of ‘ME & MINE’ to thinking primarily of ‘WE & OURS’.
And to therein create a system measuring success by the way we support and encourage our most disadvantaged.
Phil Preston Mullumbimby
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
