Harmony
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HARMONY day should be moved to December 25 so that Christmas can slowly be phased out.
— L. COOPER, St Leonards.
Terrorist
AUSTRALIANS should prepare themselves for more terrorist situation.
They will happen and lives will be lost.
The Federal Government is weak for trying to stop would-be terrorists leaving the country.
Let them leave and don’t let them back in.
They are already brainwashed and would carry out acts of terrorism given the chance.
Time to get tough Mr Abbott.
— C. KNOWLES, Devonport.
Help
RECENTLY we visited the Barossa Valley, and were very impressed with the young, enthusiastic culture of the area.
The focus is very much on all aspects of viticulture and tourism, and this begins in the schools, which have their own vines and winemaking competitions, through to tertiary courses.
Opportunities are provided at all levels of ability and training, and the attitude is invariable positive and confident.
Additionally, virtually every spare inch of land bears grapes.
An article in a recent Gourmet Traveller wine magazine stated that several large wine producers were now using Tasmanian grapes in preference to Victorian, but that the grapes are sent to the mainland for processing as the volume is too small here.
Perhaps we need to capitalise on the growth of this industry by expanding it, educating our children into the vast opportunities it presents, and benefitting from the marketing, which astute wine producers have already begun.
This requires community and government focus, planning and contribution, but provides a strong and sustainable future for our children.
— D. PORTEOUS, Perth.
Islamic Terrorism
MUCH is made of Sydney gunman Man Haron Monis being some sort of deranged individual. No doubt he is, but there seems to be a lots of these “individuals” both in Australia and elsewhere in the world.
How many more sieges, stabbings, planned bombings (thank heavens for great work by ASIO), joining Islamic State, protests against anti-terror laws, calls for sharia, rioting against movies, child marriages and honour killings by “individuals” to take place before we acknowledge the fact that some Muslims have not really accepted Australia’s (or indeed whole of Western world) current status as a liberal and secular democracy that guarantees rights of all?
— D. KOSTA, Launceston.
Childrens camp
MY granddaughter has just attended the Sony Foundation children’s camp held at Grammar for children with special needs
I would like to acknowledge the wonderful students who were one-on-one carers to each of these amazing children, especially ours, Maggie Lahey, a wonderful young lady.
The Sony Foundation for the financial assistance, my granddaughter had three wonderful days that have created a lifetime of memories.
To the carers, nurses, volunteers, thank you so much.
Each year you run this camp quietly not needing recognition for the wonderful work you all do.
You are all truly amazing people and treated my granddaughter with love, respect, thoughtfulness and allowed her to be herself and shine!
— B. PARRY, Norwood.
Act
I AM so ashamed of the actions of some Australian people in the wake of the Martin Place siege.
How dare people villify all Muslims on the actions of one man
There are good and bad in every race.
Martin Bryant was Australian and murdered innocent people.
Did anyone spit in the faces and abuse other Australians?
No they didn’t.
The only ones to blame for what happened was the man himself
I for one believe in solidarity.
The hate is vicious and a very nasty way to be towards innocent people.
We should be protecting them from harm so as they don’t have to be victimized for the acts of someone they never even knew of before that day.
My heart goes out to the families of those who lost a family member and those who will suffer trauma for a very long time, but my heart also goes out to the other innocent victims, the Muslims of Australia who are being treated so badly through no fault of their own.
— S. GOEBEL, Newstead.
Terrorists
THE reality is this.
In a male dominated church it is the men who are predominantly the abusers.
In the post match carousing of team sport it has been the men who repeatedly demonstrate disrespect to women.
In the murder/suicides that are a regular occurrence in our news bulletins it is the men who dominate the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Not all men.
Certainly nowhere near the majority of men - but still too many who equate respect with dominance and violence.
Men such as these with a criminal disposition with extremist religion as a vehicle is the nightmare we currently face.
The full glare of media exposure is an accelerant for the ultimate expression of deluded power:
To kill. We need to be mindful of exactly what is underlying and we need to be careful that in our eagerness to expose it we do not encourage it.
— TONY NEWPORT, Hillwood.
Firearms
EVERY time some criminal commits a crime in which a firearm is involved, Roland Browne, predictable as sunrise, appears in the media touting the banning of firearms as a panacea.
Can Mr Browne not see, for Heaven's sake, that prohibition just does not work?
The banning of a product simply means that it becomes more difficult for people casually to access the product, and not that it becomes impossible.
Serious offenders will always be able to tap (already) illicit sources of weapons, including fully automatic firearms, as they do now - weapons that are already banned.
It seems to me that our police and customs officers already do all that it is possible for them to do; adding the complication of "banning" will not alter their capacity to do their job.
Mr Browne should keep his seriously flawed reasoning on the firearms situation to himself - unless, of course, he manages to come up with a practical solution that might have a chance of contributing to a solution to the problem of firearms crime.
But banning certainly ain't it.
— PETER MCKEAN, Kings Meadows.
Vessel
IN RESPONSE to your article headed “Proposal to dump unsightly boats” and Councillor Lawrence Archer’s motion for MAST to take the necessary action to have derelict and unsightly vessels removed from the Brid River Port Area.
I would offer the following: the vessel in question is moored at a privately owned facility in the Brid River.
The vessel was recently sold to an international deep sea diver whose intention is to reinstate the vessel to commercial survey.
In response to Cr Archers’ comment, “the offending vessel has been there, without propellers and no maintenance, for over five years”, the vessel is inspected on a bimonthly basis and any necessary maintenance undertaken.
The vessel is fitted with fully operational V16 engines and has full hull and machinery insurance cover and has public liability maintained at all times in excess of $20 million.
Bridport is a commercially operating port, which is maintained without assistance from MAST, Parks and Wildlife or the Crown. MAST has control over the fisherman’s wharf at Bridport but has no jurisdiction to enforce removal of what Cr Archer considers “derelict” vessels from a privately owned and operated facility.
I would suggest Cr Archer’s efforts would be better redirected in perhaps obtaining public facilities on the Bridport Fisherman’s Wharf – one of the very few public wharfs in Tasmania yet to provide such facilities.
— SHANNON BAYLES, Bridport.