Letters to the Editor

 

Thumbs up
Re your editorial in the Mangawhai Focus, September 16. Thumbs up for your comments on radio interviewers and the so-called “news” that is often dished up.

I also appreciate the social commentary by Chris Sellars. It’s nice to have a newspaper that doesn’t just follow the “politically correct” line all the time.

P Cullen
Mangawhai

Ask big questions
Thank you for enunciating the dearth of investigative journalism. It was one of the best pieces we’ve read! Bring back ‘pertinent questions’: Why did our glaciers retreat from 1750? How did Vikings live for 300 years in Greenland? Why did the Thames River freeze over in winter?

Make our politicians and ‘experts’ accountable. Ask the questions. Go for the jugular. 

David Owen
Mangawhai

Protect the unborn
Reading Worzel’s article (Showing Appreciation, September 16) about the inconsistencies seen in political parties preferring protest about the saving of animals, like whales, yet seeming unconcerned about the enormous loss of human life, rings so harrowingly true. New Zealand farmers abide by laws that make obtaining calf termination through a vet more restrictive, while abortion is already easily available to humans – it has been proposed to increase its potency. So does all this mean we are of less value than cows and whales?

The impact honesty and truthfulness can have on people’s lives is what spoke to me from this article. Time is teaching me that being an honest friend is of extreme importance. How wonderful to read a story of a child who was rescued. If only I had been as honest as Worzel, perhaps the story I have would not be about a baby who was lost. While wishing the past was different, it can’t be changed, so I live in hope of a story of life saved to treasure in future.

‘Do what you feel is right’ is the advice I gave my best friend when we were 17. Some best friend I was! Now, 16 years on, it breaks my heart to think of what terribly bad advice I gave. I gave her a mediocre reply, all the while hoping she would keep her baby because I knew for certain this was the right thing to do. But my friend just went with her feelings. She had no one else to confide in. I had an important part to play but didn’t realise it and failed her. 

A voiceless baby is easily disposed of. Please, anybody reading this, don’t make the same mistake I did as an emotion-led teenager. The advice we give emotionally vulnerable people is significantly important and impacts the rest of their lives. My friend would have shared 16 years (including pregnancy) with this precious child. 

I was a spineless teenager that missed my chance when it counted. I plead with anyone finding themselves in that same circumstance in future, please choose to protect the unborn and their vulnerable parents who need the right advice and support. Killing the unborn at any stage should not be a solution on offer. 

Sorry to the unborn, sorry to my friend, sorry to my maker! 

(Abridged)

(Name & address supplied)
Wellsford

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