David Lange Dead post

Waited a few days to post this. Seeing as this is just a personal spot, am just basically posting it, in case I ever look back on this, and then I can go - oh yes, that was the week David Lange passed on. Anyone can find out about him anywhere else, so I won't go into a long thing about who he was. It's what he did, that makes him memorable, and what he stood for. Because he really did take a stand, and one that really I can't say I've seen any politician in the world take since. Not an actual elected one I mean, one that gets elected into government. Pointing out that he was elected after running a no nukes election campaign. Basically, he just said no way to war, no nuke war ships in the NZ harbour - and that was that. It was right in the middle of the whole 80's nuclear (very real threat) paranoia episode. And he put his foot down, and stood by it. And lead the way, as it were, or more to the point, followed his people. Because nobody wanted war, or nukes, unless they saw money in it, which nobody in NZ really did. Except for Muldoon and whoever potted the rainbow warrior. It was really a formative moment for NZ, of course there have been many other formative moments, but that was a really crucial political time and Lange just trumped it, he smelt change in the air - or perhaps greenery, and made a decision that although it doesn't get a lot of pacific press coverage, actually has had a huge unspoken subtle effect on the southern hemisphere.

Anyway, out of all the obituaries floating around, this is the one that I liked, the actual passing moment. He passed away missing half a leg, and in middlemore hospital, which is also a maternity hospital, so that's kind of a nice cyclic wind-up.

Here's what his brother said;

"His breathing became quite peaceful and slightly different and he just stopped breathing and just stopped being conscious basically."

Mr Lange (brother) said his brother (Mr Lange) said nothing of real importance during his last conversation.

And you know, he didn't need to. He said it all already and we will always remember it.