If the dates on the reader's reviews are accurate, there haven't been many submissions since the Howard government was returned. Either that or those that have been submitted have been culled for some reason. Too rude?

Maybe some spirits have been broken. Well, buck up. I keep being told to accept the umpire's ruling. Howard won, get over it. Get on the train or get off the track. No.

Surely one of the frailties of Democracy is also one of its strengths; that the majority, if majority truly rules, can make anything acceptable. If the majority of Australians voted to imprison children then that is what would happen. In a society sufficiently prepared by spin and fear anthing becomes possible. Does it make it right? If the majority feeling in South Africa was pro-Apartheid, does it make Apartheid unassailably right? No.

I will not accept the decision of the umpire and I consider myself a patriot for it. Some things believed by the majority are wrong. It was true historically, it's true now. For the sake of my country, for my own sake and for the sake of those I love, I will always dissent. In a country of 20 million people there should be potentially 20 million points of view. Why must I subscribe to only one?

Please don't give up Australia. It's never the end.