Dear Morrie

After reading your last column, I must say I’m appalled at your treatment by SOCOG.
You’re right, it’s people like SOCOG – and the army of lawyers they employ – that are holding back the real entrepreneurs in Australia.
I couldn’t see what was wrong with your idea for the “Sydney 2000 Games” and all the other events that would have followed it based on local postcode districts.
I’m disgusted that genuine people like you who have Australia’s sporting future at heart are being held back by mindless bureaucrats.
Just looking at the TV footage of all the excited young kids watching the Olympic torch relay proves to me – as it should to everyone else – just how valuable a nationwide sporting program for young Australians would be.
Don’t give up Morrie. I’m with you and I know thousands more share my view.

Supporter
Palen Creek

Dear Supporter,

Thanks mate. Letters like yours really make it all worthwhile.
To tell the truth, your note brought a tear to the old Morrie’s eyes.
By the way, your letter is just one of many that have been pouring into my post office boxes, and they all echo your sentiments.
Rest assured, I haven’t given up on my dream.
SOCOG may have shattered my original plans. But, I’m picking up the pieces and putting it all back together in a slightly different form.
I’m still determined to give Aussie kids something to strive for, something that can help them realise their own sporting dreams.
You’re spot on when you say the torch relay highlights just how much energy and enthusiasm is out there for Australian sporting glory.
We need something that can harness that energy and make sure it’s channeled in the right direction. So, I’m developing a new plan to do just that.
My idea is to recruit as many of our nation’s sporting heroes as possible and have them fan out across our wide brown land to spread the message that sport is a wonderful way for kids to be taught real and valuable life lessons.
The concept is similar to the torch relay. Each sporting hero I sign up will be asked to visit a number of cities and towns in each state and territory to talk to local kiddies, run sports clinics and show them that active participation in a sport of their choice is a great way to spend the time they’d otherwise waste listening to pop music, spray painting rude words on brick walls or indulging in other anti-social behaviour.
Not a bad plan is it? I reckon it’s one that every government in this country should support, and not just with a few patronising words but with cold hard moolah.
It’s an idea that will no doubt be expensive to implement.
But when you think of the spin-offs, it’s a wise investment in Australia’s future.
So, if you want to help, I’m offering you the opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
I’ve already set up a special organisation to run things at my end. It’s arranged according to a standard discretionary trust structure so people like you can invest with full confidence. After all, as you should know by now I am nothing if not a man of confidence.
So, if you want to help build our nation’s sporting future, invest now.
Send me a few Ks and I’ll get things rolling this end.
Send me a cheque made out to Celebrate Australia’s Sporting Heroes.
Bugger it, to save your time and mine, just make it out to CASH.
I’ll be in touch.

Morrie

Morrie Bezzle is chairman of the Dawn Frazer Management Group,
executive director of Far Lap Betting Systems Ltd (in liquidation)
and general manager of Sirdon Brad & Mann Telemarketing Pty Ltd.

The publisher and staff of The Bug take no responsibility for the advice provided in this column.