Launchpad Graduation

Thursday 2 March 2006

How do we build peace? Is there any issue aside of climate change that is more pressing for our times?

I’m sure I’m not alone in finding that the discord, dissent, war and hatred we witness daily are far from what I expected for this age.

How then do we build on our common humanity to build the bonds of peace? Projects like Milestones are a great step in the right direction.

Who can’t remember the vast importance of the first big tooth, the first friend, or for parents, the thrill of the first step? Those are the magic moments that tie us together.

It has never been the great events that have got people talking to me while I have been Mayor. The great hits have always been the Austin, the garden at home and the wood burner, not necessarily in that order.

We all like what we can identify with, here and in the world at large.

On the weekend, when we helped open the new Upper Riccarton Library, I brought the idea down to a human level by taking one of the Tampa refugee boys through the door with me as one of the first in.

I told the people that our challenge as a city was to make sure that he, like the rest of us, got the best shot at making the most of himself as he could. It was an idea we could all relate to.

Milestones celebrates our humanity. I am delighted to be able to help celebrate that tonight.