Stories of social justice and a stable genius
Philip Matthews farewells one of the greats.
A giant of politics
Tributes flowed all week for Jim Anderton, former deputy prime minister and a giant of Left-wing and Christchurch politics. He was 79. It seems like everyone had Anderton stories, from people he helped in his Sydenham electorate office to journalists to politicians from all sides, and on that note it was touching to see former adversaries Jim Bolger, Gerry Brownlee and David Carter at his funeral service in Addington on Thursday. My own story is probably typical. Ten years ago, while I was researching a story on religious belief in politics, Anderton was happy to front up and talk about how important his Catholicism was to his strong sense of social justice. He was down to earth about it, too: ‘‘I’ve never stopped believing, not in God or in the values and ethics of Christianity. I was in a Bible study group that went through the Bible about five times, from cover to cover, with Father Ernie Simmons, who was the editor of [Catholic publication] Zealandia. He was a very fine theologian, so by the time I’d done that I’d done a course in theology, I reckon. So I’m reasonably well-equipped to match the born-again Christians who want to argue out gospel quotations.’’
Time’s up for them
The hits keep coming and by ‘‘hits’’ we mean creepy male performers who have been dragged, kicking and squealing, into the public eye because of their historic sexual abuses. The dust had barely settled on news about Craig ‘‘bad neighbour’’ McLachlan’s hideous transgressions while starring as the sweet transvestite in The Rocky Horror Show when actor James Franco was suddenly at the centre of allegations about his own misconduct, all while he was wearing a ‘‘time’s up’’ pin at the Golden Globes in solidarity with women. But the same event became a platform for an inspirational speech from TV star Oprah Winfrey that had some hoping, or even assuming, that she will run for president in 2020. If we make it to 2020.
And for him
Journalist Michael Wolff’s incendiary book Fire and Fury lifted the lid on a feuding, chaotic White House and stalled the staggering rise of Right-wing strategist and pundit Steve Bannon. One of the leading sources of the book’s sensational accounts of warring factions and a clueless president, Bannon has been dismissed in the official Donald Trump manner: he has been given a nickname. ‘‘Sloppy Steve’’ joins ‘‘Crooked Hillary’’ and ‘‘Pocahontas’’ (politician Elizabeth Warren) in Trump’s hall of infamy. But Trump gave himself a better nickname: ‘‘Stable genius’’.
Anderton reprise
We could conclude with some news about the weather: it rained a lot, there were floods. But wild weather is almost the new normal. Let’s close instead from another quote from Anderton on religion, politics and public service: ‘‘I’m not here as a Catholic or a Christian, I’m here as a legislator. I legislate on behalf of the people of New Zealand. So I have to be careful that I don’t allow any religious view I have to be influential in the decisions I make other than the ethical set of values I have: to be honest; to tell the truth.’’