{"id":1142,"date":"2025-05-16T15:34:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T03:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daveforcouncil.nz\/?p=334"},"modified":"2025-05-16T15:34:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T03:34:42","slug":"why-support-dave-when-you-dont-agree-with-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?p=1142","title":{"rendered":"Why Support Dave When You Don\u2019t Agree With Him?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Support Dave When You Don\u2019t Agree With Him?<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This is my request for you to support my campaign.<\/p>\n

I think we are all focussed as a community, as a world even, on what divides us and what we disagree on.<\/p>\n

We stand far apart from each other and shout across a huge divide, no one prepared to give an ideological centimetre to their opponents.<\/p>\n

But what good is that doing?<\/p>\n

It gives us all a hollow moral victory dais to say \u201cI’m right and everyone else doesn’t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

I am sure you’re not that person and I know I’m not either.<\/p>\n

I’ve never had any interest in standing for political office, and I had several offers over the years.<\/p>\n

But I do believe that we need to come together and start acting like a community again, and embrace our differences rather than use them as weapons on each other.<\/p>\n

That can only be achieved by showing people the way to do it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m recently invited musicians to participate in Dave Aid \u2013 A Concert For Whakatane.<\/p>\n

One of my guests who has said yes is a musical friend who I have been involved with since my teens. He’s a Ponsonby property portfolio investment advisor and we couldn’t be further apart politically. But he knows me and he knows what I stand for.<\/p>\n

He knows I will make a good councillor and he hopes other good councillors will out vote me and follow policies more aligned with his perspective.<\/p>\n

But he isn’t worried that I will challenge them and prosecute for my own values.<\/p>\n

He was concerned that participating might be seen as a political ‘endorsement’ and I told him I have no problems with you using the platform at the benefit concert to explain we don’t agree on some things, but I would ask you to see that by participating you also show that the world is bigger than a disagreement two friends might have.<\/p>\n

Our world needs to know that friends can disagree and still be friends.<\/p>\n

We can have strong disagreements and still be friends.<\/p>\n

It’s because we are friends that we can disagree.<\/p>\n

This is my message to the Whakatane Community – let’s remember that, at heart, we are all human and count on each other.<\/p>\n

We need to heal our divisions.<\/p>\n

If you think about this and still find it a bit more than you can be comfortable with, I am totally fine with that.<\/p>\n

And I really appreciate that for some people this is a difficult decision, and whatever your answer to it is, is the right decision.<\/p>\n

For you and me and for everyone.<\/p>\n