The Great Communicator of Enthusiasm

I got to know B.A. “Bob” Santamaria through his written work. It was his skill with words and media that struck me.

I recall a camping weekend with friends and family when I took along Bob’s Against the Tide for my light reading. I’m not sure entirely what I was expecting, but what I found was something thrilling, something exciting, something empowering.

I read it cover to cover over that weekend, in between my bike-riding and coffee, meals and shenanigans. I just sat beside the creek and let this old Aeolian intellectual take me on a riveting adventure.

I had studied moral theology and social teaching. I’d followed the developments in politics in the 1990s with interest and alarm. But none of these things were exciting. They gave me a framework, they gave me insight, they made me concerned – but they did not thrill me. And then I read Bob.

I read the adventure of ordinary Aussies putting their principles into action. I read the adventure of ordinary Aussies with no backing going up against not-so-ordinary adversaries backed by foreign powers and multinational movements. I read of them being betrayed and abandoned by those they thought friends, of them being under constant attack – but remaining cheerful and vigilant and faithful throughout.

The world fell into place and I got a sense of things that could be done, if only we tried to do them. This was the sense Bob created – one that energised, one that excited, one that empowered the ordinary to become extraordinary. You could see the possibilities and you see why he was such an extraordinary man, and this an extraordinary Movement.

There was room for everyone in this Movement. There needed to be, for everyone was needed. Bob worked with others in the unions, in the Church, in the universities. He was not alone, no spider in the middle of a web pulling strings, but a sociable and humble Latin keen on family and friendship.

The people around Bob helped him and challenged him. They made him who he was, and they made this Movement what it was – a vibrant force for good and a community of communities working together for the Common Good.

As the years went by, Bob extended his reach through the wonders of the media. He used the press, the radio, the television to reach more people to bring them into the community as well. Many may have disliked Bob, but I’d bet many more loved him. He spoke to them directly through the mediums they knew best, and he spoke to them in a way they could understand.

Bob wasn’t a preacher, nor an interviewer, nor an academic. He was, in a way, a practical philosopher offering analyses that put the present in the context of the past to predict the future.

Bob wasn’t always right and he knew this. However, people outside the office were less likely to see this openness. Our studies into our history have brought up many things the world needs to know more about.

For instance, we knew Bob was creative from the work he produced. What we did not know was how open he was to conversation with differing viewpoints. Bob was never dogmatic when it came to policy, but he was dogmatic when it came to principle – and even then he would still patiently and seriously listen to the perspectives of those he found mistaken.

Bob knew the truth was strong enough to withstand even the most rigorous questioning, and even the most rigorous questioner.

Please join us for our upcoming livestreams and events so we can explore the truth together. Please support us as we put Bob’s vision of an empowered Australia into practice.

Luke McCormack is national president of the National Civic Council.