The PR Blog

When I was a child, my teacher taught us the story of Grace Darling, a heroine of enormous courage. I wonder how many of us have heard her name today or know of her incredible act of heroism one dark and stormy night in 1838? 

For there are many heroes in history whose names have been forgotten and whose acts of bravery have been washed ashore on a beach and taken away by the waves of indifference. 

This is our salute to one person whose name and deed should never be forgotten and, in the words of Wordsworth  " "But courage, Father! let us out to sea,
A few may yet be saved." 

“Dad, why are the cops bad?”

This was the question I had to answer when I recently watched First Blood with my son. Only eight years old, he still lived in a world that was simple: cops are good guys, and their job is to catch the bad guys.

I explained to him that cops are just people like everyone else. Some are good and some are bad. That answer seemed to satisfy him, and soon he was watching Rambo II and Rambo III, films he favored even more, perhaps because they were less morally complicated.

Queensland and other parts of Australia are overrun with Cane Toads. They have destroyed so much of Australian agriculture and people have forgotten how they arrived in the first place.

In 1935, the toads were not native to the country and they were brought in to control the population of beetles that were damaging sugar cane crops. However, rather than doing good, the cane toads became the first invasive species to be introduced deliberately in the state and they became pests.

Rather than solve the problem, they became a problem.

Government officials, public health officials, media and a whole host of other talking heads that parrot official talking points have repeatedly lied to us. We knew this, but now — without apology — they’re all starting to “admit” it by subtly changing the narrative.

As noted by comedian Jimmy Dore in the August 3, 2022, episode of “The Jimmy Dore Show” (video below):

“This story is very close to my heart, because it exonerates me. They’ve been lying about COVID, they’ve been lying about the vaccines, they’ve been lying about herd immunity, they’ve been lying about natural immunity, they’ve been lying about masks.

They’ve been lying about children — they’ve been lying about everything! Who’d have thunk the government and Big Pharma would lie to us? For profit? I am flummoxed. I am beside myself with slack-jawedness.”

When I was a lad, life was simpler, harder yet straightforward and honest. As the world is flooded with newfangled gadgetry and newfangled woke spoke, I find myself looking back on the post war years with a strange regret. Life is so newfangled that it is a complex place of ever-increasing innovation, and gratitude for the simple things in life is a far distant memory. We should consider how imprisoned we have become in this newfangled world which has rewarded us with so much and yet taken even more by stealth.

When remembering the past, and the way things used to be, one date has particular significance … 15^th September. On that day in 2002 a man who had a huge influence in my life passed gently to another life. Extremely talented, always cheerful and willing to help his customers, well liked and highly respected Pharmacist Alf Dlugaj had managed a pharmacy in Ayr, and I had the great good fortune to have been his first, and only, apprentice. 

We learn many things in life, from a range of different people and random events, and the course of our life is often changed in a manner completely unexpected, which was demonstrated in spectacular fashion by the way in which the life of our dearly loved Queen Elizabeth moved in new directions from carefree childhood to assuming the onerous duties which she willingly accepted and discharged so well as promised, all her life, whether it be long or short.

It is always interesting to remember how things used to be, but much more hazardous to attempt to anticipate the future.