Hanson
There was a telling juxtaposition on Channel 9 on the evening of October 20. Sixty Minutes showed Pauline Hanson in a ferocious argument with some young Murris in Ipswich. The upshot was that she had one arrested for swearing. Straight afterwards, at the beginning of Four Weddings and a Funeral we witnessed the opening lines (un-deleted) of "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck ... ". I guess when black kids in Ipswich swear it's a crime, but when upper class English tossers swear it's humour.
Exactly where does Pauline Hanson get off? She attacks everyone who isn't white like her, flaunts her populist lower middle class prejudice and then gets all coy when the argument gets vigorous. Her actions are directly responsible for one young man's criminal record. It certainly is a good way to cut crime. She should be proud of herself.
I hope she has a good collection of smelling salts. At this rate she'll have many more attacks of the vapours before the struggle against her proto-fascist views is over. Unite to fight!
Malcolm MacLean
Qld
Choice
Be it "Abortion" or "Euthanasia", it's an individual choice. Should somebody have a problem with that, religious or whatever, don't do it. It is not compulsory. The absurd comparisons drawn from the "Holocaust" are just that, absurd! The choices people are able to make about their own humanity are one of the only things left where people can exercise their rights.
It's not something that's done for a lark! The "Right to Lifers" and/or religious zealots should keep their consciences off other people's bodies, at whichever end of the life cycle.
Bobbie Fuge
Coolac NSW
Students' rights
The NSW government has committed itself to resolving the continuing conflict over native forests by becoming involved in the implementation of the National Forest Policy by the Resource and Conservation Assessment Council (RCAC).
As students wishing to inherit an ecologically sustainable future, we supported the Conservation Criteria Outcomes of the RCAC report and the EMMA (Environment Movement Moratorium Areas) and believe jobs and the environment can and must be compatible.
We were suspended from school for expressing our opinions and standing up for these. As the NSW Cabinet met in Grafton on August 20 we walked out of school to attend a rally. Upon our return to school the Principal suspended us for two days claiming we had destroyed the reputation of the school. Confronted with concern from our parents and others in the community, he later stated that we were suspended for being in uniform.
Why should we be discriminated against for having opinions or trying to make the world a better place? We live in Australia ... not Indonesia. The school has no right to suspend us for standing up for what we believe in. We have a right to have a say in what goes on in this society. It's us who are going to be most affected if our environment continues to be destroyed.
Dave Noonan
Grafton NSW
[Abridged.]
Public transport
Why is the Carr government driving itself into an intractable morass of traffic congestion, air pollution and chaotic land use?
The Government which could not afford to stop the M2 Tollway because of contractual restraints imposed by the private sector is quite prepared to: strike additional private-public deals including the Eastern Distributor; scrimp on noise protection for the victims of the RTA; scrap written promises to buy out M2-affected householders; flog all land near the M2 for short-term gain after recommending that the bushland, open space and private homes be re-zoned for intensive residential and industrial development.
The Government which once denied that the M2 Tollway would deliver disastrous traffic loads to surrounding areas is now considering further six-figure (private) road works to shunt that traffic into the clogged heart of the CBD and beyond. Hopeful residents of East Sydney, Lane Cove, West Chatswood, Eastwood, etc. cling to dreams of traffic tunnels to save their neighbourhoods if no others.
The Government which is widening the M4 and extending the M5 is promising again to pay motorists' tolls — increasing private tollway profit and public cost, pushing the prospect of new rail infrastructure deeper into the never-never.
Sydney is choking on its own exhaust fumes. The Carr Government may not be listening, but any local Councillor, suburban journalist or resident group knows that the dangers of traffic and the inadequacy of public transport are the two topics with which their phones run hot.
D. Michel
North Ryde NSW
Death row
I've been on Death Row now for about 3 months. I sit back in this here single man cell at times and I try to understand the logic of the solution that was set forth by the justice system here in the USA. The people who are a part of bringing about justice must actually believe that they have perfected the art of judgement to sentence a person to the extremeness of the final judgement of Death and that their system is perfect and mistakes cannot happen.
I never thought in my wildest thoughts that I would ever be on Death Row. For me to be here the jurors must have looked at me to be only a killer or the Devil with no love for living things. Or it could have been that they already had certain prejudices in their heart and that I fit the image.
I can honestly say that I don't deserve to be here waiting for a lethal injection, waiting for an appeal that can take years of my freedom to find out that I was denied justice; proving that due process and equal protection is only for those they choose, and freedom is only for those they choose.
I was told that Australia does not have the death penalty. I am seeking to correspond with someone from Australia.
Keith D. Taylor
PO Box H46885, San Quentin State Penn, San Quentin, California 94974, USA.
[Abridged.]
Indonesia
In recent times it has become very evident that the oppression of the people under the Indonesian Government is not a myth as many would have us believe.
The people of East Timor have suffered horrendous persecution at the hands of the Indonesian military for over twenty years and know full well what they are capable of.
Christians in Solidarity with East Timor joins in condemning the Indonesian Government and its imprisonment of people who have broken no law except that of free speech. We call for the release of all prisoners both from Indonesia and East Timor who have been incarcerated because the have called for freedom for their people.
Kath O'Connor
CISET coordinator
Burwood North NSW