Issue 812
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At this time of year I find myself assaulted by Easter ads on TV urging parents to buy yet more neon coloured eggs and bunnies. In the supermarket, one is bombarded by more fluffy rabbits delivering eggs. So I'd like to illuminate the true meaning of Easter.
It is the nature of dominating religions to subvert and assimilate existing beliefs and rituals. Easter is a good example of this. The word 'Easter' is based upon the root word/name of 'Eostre' the Saxon goddess of rebirth. In the Northern hemisphere at this time of year the Pagan tribes would be celebrating Spring Equinox, a time of rebirth of the sun, the return of warmth and fertility within the Earth.
The Hare is her sacred animal - hence the Easter bunny. Coloured eggs, usually red, are symbols of fertility connected with the springtime Goddess. In the southern hemisphere we are encouraged, like sheep, to follow the traditions of Christianity whether religious or not. We are encouraged on a grand scale to purchase chocolate idols praising the 'Cadbury God', without giving a thought to its true meaning or relevance.
In the southern hemisphere we are now at the time of Autumn Equinox- known as Mabon - a time of harvest from the land and thanksgiving in preparation for the cold dark season of Winter.
SF Ball
Lismore
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A little over two weeks ago (Tuesday, March 5) I attended, with approximately 45 other people, a guided walk around Lismore Lake Bird Sanctuary and I am delighted to say it is happening again.
This time Roland Schicht Sunshine, a local artist and bird watcher, is teaming up with respected bird enthusiast Molly Crawford to provide a highly informative and interesting tour of the lake and its bird life.
With debate about the use of the lake still ongoing this is a perfect opportunity for those in favour of preserving the birds habitat to show their support. It is also an opportunity for boaties to come down and see for themselves the abundance of life currently calling Lismore Lake home.
I for one will be at the Lake (opposite the airport), at 5.30pm on April 4 to join Roland and Molly on their tour. I urge others, pro-boat and pro-bird, to join me, if only to enjoy ending their day with a lovely walk around one of Lismore's natural treasures.
D. Cooper
Lismore Heights
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Over a time period, pagan festivals replaced biblical feasts of Old Testament and the observances of Christmas and Easter became a part of Christian tradition. Easter is a non-biblical word except for a miss-translation for Passover in Authorised King James Version. Acts 12:4.
Easter is not a Christian story. Easter is of a non-Christian deity, and the season itself predates Christianity and has been the occasion of rituals and observances, over the mystery of death and resurrection among people who differ in race and religion.
Polycarp, 69? - 155? Bishop of Smyma, later martyred for his faith, said that he and his followers kept the feast of 'Passover' because they must obey God rather than man. Pope Victor, 189-199 c.e, finally excommunicated Polycarp's followers, because they failed to keep the Roman date of Easter. Eusebius writes of the separation of Passover and Easter and it became a heresy, punishable by excommunication, to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus at the same time as the Jewish Passover.
By the fourth century, 'Easter' which was a fertility festival in honour of the goddess Ishtar had officially replaced 'Passover' as the Christian celebration.
The Council of Nicea convened by Constantine changed the dates of religious festivals from biblical dates to pagan festivals and Christians were informed never to attend 'Jewish festivals.'
The cross symbol was adopted long after the departure of Jesus. The reason for this was the fact that in Galatians 3:13 'Cursed is anyone who hangs from a tree.'
Historical knowledge available to us today recognises the fact that the cross was well recognised as a religious symbol long before the death of Jesus. The ancient Egyptians had the cross as a religious symbol of their Gods. The Egyptian saviour Horus is shown holding a cross in his hand, also as an infant sitting on his mothers knee with a cross on the seat upon which they sat.
Those who doubt, please research.
Jim Lee
Alstonville
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Thank heavens she's returned to us! Welcome back Ms Evelyn Gough's 'In The Picture' weekly movie review. Everyone was bemused that Andy replaced you, and for so long, it was torture. His critical efforts were adequate I suppose, but Evelyn's feminine film reviews are best!
It's funny how you don't know what good things you have until they're taken away, like Ev was. Phew, your enlightened, entertaining style is back. At last we have our dear friend in the Echo to help us with appreciation of movies we all love to see. Let me say for all the Echo readership welcome home dear Evelyn from your most ardent admirer.
M. Charles Kelly
Lismore
For the time being, Ev and Andy will rotate on the reviews until Evelyn is back to full strength. - Ed
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I wish to express my thanks to B Hoskins of Wyrallah (Echo, Mar 21) who admitted he was wrong about the name Jabiru. It takes a big person with a magnanimous mind to admit publicly to a mistake.
Furthermore, his plea for conservation to have a priority over motor sports, provided that research proves that Lismore Lake in its present state supports threatened species of birds, may help to sway the seemingly closed minds of some of our councillors.
Those who love the lake and its wildlife are planning another community walk there next Thursday, April 4, at 5pm. You will be welcome to join us Mr Hoskins and all other sympathisers. Meet near the swimming pool.
Molly Crawford
Goonellabah
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I would like to respond to a letter by Stu Wales, titled 'Doofheads' (Echo, Mar 21).
I organise an electronic event called 'Beatmarket', staged every Friday night at the Tattersall's Hotel, Lismore. It seems Mr Wales may have been breathing some of that hot air in our direction - yes, we just love that bass that allegedly 'seeps through walls at half a dB'.
In response to noise complaints, we have re-enforced the sound proofing at the Tatts so that it now complies with current EPA sound restrictions. It also seemed to satisfy the occupants of the motel next door, therefore it could not possibly be annoying anyone further away than there. This brings me to the conclusion that the problem Mr Wales has is not with the VOLUME of the music being played, but with the MUSIC itself. Ridiculous amounts of propaganda and speculation surround the electronic music scene. This has contributed to a less than reputable image, in turn leading to a lack of venues, and ultimately, a decline in supporters numbers.
The other problem here is a total lack of communication. If the neighbours are too loud, rather than looking first to the local police to help, try talking to your neighbours to see if some middle ground can be reached. They won't bite - listening to dance music does not correlate to satanic worship. We go as far as 200km away to find party sites that will not annoy anyone. The sites we use are left as they are found - to the extent that the last pack-up activity of every party is to pick up any remaining cigarette butts.
Recently, access to Seven Mile beach at Lennox Head was closed, due to damage incurred from 'doof' parties staged there over the New Year period. Local party crews/organisers have used and respected this site for many years.
I would like to take this opportunity to dispel any rumours - no local organisers were involved in the relevant events - these were promoters from other areas, with absolutely no respect for the venue they chose. It is situations like this that provide unwarranted dirt on local promoters, partygoers and the scene in general.
So, if the neighbours hate your music, and the local police are threatening to impound your precious audio equipment (again), join us at the Tatts for a legitimate, law-abiding evening of EPA approved beats, from 9pm till 3am every Friday night.
Pete Blay
East Lismore
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A couple of quick comments before I get to my main whine. Peter Hollingsworth has been an excellent distraction for the PM who would otherwise have had the whole press corps busy coming to the amazing conclusion that politicians don't always tell the whole truth.
Imagine that! Is it too cynical to suggest that is why the PM didn't do his normal weather-cock to the wind of public opinion and sack him outright was that the PM recognised the honorary doctor's value as a distraction?
I feel that the G.G. has simply shown himself to be, what we all knew he was, a naive believer in impossible tales, and a man who grew up when women, like Eve, were to blame for 'luring' men into wrongdoing, and people thought what was wrong with sexual abuse was the sex and not the warped and unequal power trip the perpetrator is on.
G. Wallace in his letters (Echo, Mar 21) claims that a majority of voters did vote for the coalition and therefore we all should accept the decisions of the PM as being correct as the majority agree. What many people forget is that just because the majority say something is right doesn't make it right. We all knew the world was flat. I can imagine that a German version of Wallace would have argued that Hitler's policies in the 1930s were correct because the majority of people agreed with him and that we bleeding hearts should shut up and let the 'Boss' get on with persecuting Jews, gypsies, commies and queers. I imagine that G. Wallace would argue that Kylie Minogue is 15 times better at singing than Dame Kiri because 15 times more people like Miss Minogue's tuneless warbling.
Finally, I have decided that the main problem with this country is its pathetic media. The Echo should go national! I have some inside knowledge what is happening in Zimbabwe and the Australian press reporting of events in that country are so inaccurate as to beggar belief! To put it into some context to be as bad the Zimbabwe press would be reporting that J Howard had thrown refugee children into the water and the GG had made false photos that showed Simon Crean doing the throwing. If the media tells fibs how can we the people judge what is happening. We are upset if someone misleads parliament but we would be better served if media owners lost their licences if they were found to have misled the public.
Ross Macdonald
Nimbin
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It's becoming increasingly obvious to many of us that Howard won his election by lying and demonising refugees. But we still get the same old letters from ignorant rednecks like P. Wallace (Echo March 21), who have illusions about refugees. Wallace's letter was full of all the usual myths and simplistic arguments the right use to back up their bigoted views.
The main myth is that boat people are illegal, they are not. The only people breaking the law are the Howard government. Wallace thinks we (the 'do gooders') are the only ones privileged to this kind of 'special information'. Maybe he could look beyond corporate controlled mass media. Try the Internet or independent media. The mass media promote racism and nationalism in an effort to divide us and blind us from the real problems of society. They (the ruling elite) know that if we (the working class) are united, we are powerful. You may not consider yourself a racist Wallace but you've obviously been greatly influenced by racist propaganda.
It's as though you blame the refugees for their countries problems. The main problem in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the majority of refugees are coming from, is US imperialism.
The Taliban and al Qaeda would never have existed if it wasn't for the CIA training Islamic fundamentalists in the late 70s and 80s. The continuing embargo on Iraq has forced thousands to flee starvation.
As one of the wealthy imperialist countries that exploit third world countries, Australia is obligated under international law to take in refugees no matter how they get here. If you want to help your 'fellow Aussies', Wallace, stop voting for a government that puts profit and political gain before the needs of people.
Tom Nelson
Lismore
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P Wallace (Echo, Mar 21) has raised concerns I am sure many Australians share. How could we be responsible for all refugees when there are around 30 million of them, and secondly, there are needy people within our own country, who's needs are not being met. With regards to the first point, currently Australia's refugee intake represents only 1 in every 2500 refugees, and no-one that I am aware of is suggesting we should have an open door policy to accept all of the worlds refugees. It would be a ludicrous proposal. With regards to the second point, (that there are starving and homeless people within our country, who's needs are not being addressed) this is absolutely true. However I believe it is the lack of compassion in Government policy, and the widespread belief amongst some in the community that the needy have somehow created their misery, are less deserving than the next person, and that the community has no social responsibility to attend to their needs.
This attitude is borne from the very same lack of compassion which seeks to turn away asylum seekers, who, incidentally, are fleeing countries experiencing the most horrific aspects of warfare imaginable. Iraq has been pounded with depleted uranium bombs by the British and American armed forces for over ten years...nuclear warfare has been going on under our noses all this time, not to mention the nerve gas attacks by Hussein against sections of the Iraqi population. While our own backyard certainly needs cleaning up, we have a moral and legal responsibility to protect these people if they arrive on our shores. Finally, I would remind readers that the Howard governments mandate is flimsy, with only 49% of the two party preferred popular vote last election.
Lisa Bartholomew
Lismore Heights
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In reply to G. Wallace (Echo, Mar 7) and P. Wallace (Mar 21) (Identical twins, or is one of them a clone?) Both letters contain a similar amount of garbage, for instance, Howard being elected by a vast majority? And caring people like me are gullible and stupid?
Like Jenni Oliver (Mar 21) I strongly object to any suggestion that I don't care about our laws or our country. For a start, I have lived in this great country for 77 years and went to war to defend it in 1944-45.
Having been discharged from the Navy in 1946 I lived and worked for a further 38 years from Townsville to Melbourne and in many, many places in between and was never 'on the dole'.
No, I don't feel that I need to 'get a life'.
I do care about fellow Australians, particularly our Indigenous Aussies, but that doesn't preclude me from learning the plight of those unfortunates who are escaping from horrendous conditions and regimes, and have every right to seek asylum in a wonderful country like ours.
Your assertion that their countries (Iraq and Afghanistan for instance) are safe to return to, just shows how uninformed you are.
As for the money they pay to embark on those 'leaky boats', most times is other members of their families who pool their meagre resources to allow one family to flee the outrageous conditions and often murder that they encounter there.
As for the second letter by G. Wallace (Mar 21) vilifying Justice Michael Kirby, there is no need for me to make any comment.
Doug Myler
Lismore Heights
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In reply to Peter Everett (Echo, Feb 7) and Jim (James?) Lee (Echo, Feb 14) - one can't help noticing that both bear Christian apostolic names.
Firstly, God did not design the Bible to be a dark puzzle for bright scholars but to be a bright lamp for travellers through a dark world.
Unlike all 'isms', including Buddhism etc Christianity is not a set of timeless truths, but a faith in a historical person and historical events, especially miraculous events ie. God's creation, lawgiving and prophet-inspiring, also Christ's incarnation death and resurrection. Subtract all the history and all that remains of Christianity is general ethical concern - modernist theology. Most of the radical ethical sayings in the Sermon on the Mount can be found in Rabbinic tradition, Socrates, Buddha, Laotzu or Confucius, the main difference being they are not connected with 'the Kingdom of God' as they are in Jesus' teaching.
This Kingdom though spiritual is historical. It happens, Christ brings it about, in time. Buddha said 'Look not to me, look to my dharma (doctrine). Jesus says 'Come unto me' (Matt 11:28) Buddha said 'Be ye lamps unto yourselves'. Jesus says 'I am the light of the world' (Jn 8:12) and 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life' (Jn 14:6).
Further, reason is relative to truth, it is a way of knowing truth, understanding it, discovering it or proving it. Faith is also relative to truth, a way of discovering truth. No human being ever existed without some faith. We know what we know by faith ie. belief in what others, parents, teachers, friends, writers, society tells us. Outside religion as well as inside it, faith and reason are roads to truth.
Re: the virgin birth - the assertion that an omnipotent God is limited by natural laws which he himself established is an insult to reason.
The only way to prove that the doctrine of the virgin birth is not reasonable is by proving that there is no God or that he could not do what Catholic doctrine asserts. This applies also to the resurrection, transubstantiation and other 'stumbling blocks'.
And so to women as apostles, in the past (not) and in the future (wannabes). The first step in any revolution is to discredit established authority. This has been accomplished by modernist theologians with the help of Catholic (and others), radical feminists and ambitious church career women who busy themselves searching for a 'goddess' as a role model. The innumerable women saints of the church are apparently unacceptable, least of all the Blessed Virgin Mary. She of whom it was said 'Blessed art thou amongst women' (Luke 1:42) and her own 'henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed' (Luke 1:48) - that is Christ becomes the new Adam and conquers death (resurrection) but also Mary becomes the new Eve and changes the curse of Eve to a blessing through her.
Could the cause of the radical feminists' antipathy be, because Mary heard the Word of God and kept it, whereas they admit their main objectives are 'prayer, protest & power'?
Finally to the 'burden of Christianity'.
Christ's promises to those who 'take up their cross daily and follow him' are worth checking out. Even brilliant minds often reject Christianity because they don't want it to be true, because it is no longer fashionable or because it commands obedience, repentance and humility. The ball's in your court!
Mary B Mason
Lismore Heights
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All war veterans aged 70, with qualifying service, are now eligible for comprehensive health and medical cover after legislation to extend Gold Card eligibility was passed in the Senate last week.
This means additional veterans of conflicts after WWII, including the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian Confrontation and the Vietnam War, who have qualifying service, will now receive a Gold Card.
Under the changes:
Veterans who already receive benefits through the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) will receive a Gold Card before 1 July.
Other veterans with qualifying service can contact the DVA on 13 32 54 to receive an application form.
Veterans who turn 70 after 1 July can also lodge an application with their entitlements to take effect on their birthday.
Gold Card health cover includes the provision of private patient treatment in private or public hospitals, choice of doctor, discounted pharmaceuticals, optical care, physiotherapy, dental care, podiatry and chiropractic services, and transport to and from the nearest health care facilities where treatment is being provided.
Presently there are more than 285,000 Gold Card holders, which cost the Department of Veterans' Affairs around $8200 each. Under the changes passed last week, thousands more war veterans who have qualifying service will benefit from the Gold Card.
The extension of the Gold Card is an election commitment which the Howard-Anderson Government has met. It reflects the Government's determination that, regardless of which conflict in which they served in, our veterans will receive the care they need as they grow older.
Senator Sandy Macdonald
Canberra
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It is obvious now that the Howard Government has been re-elected by telling untruths, fabricating myths and deliberately withholding vital information in relation to the Tampa crisis. The question now is how can an entire Government be recalled by the Australian voters?
What was portrayed as tough leadership by the Liberals now turns out to be an example of disgracefully unethical electioneering and lack of real leadership.
However, there is no provision in the Constitution for the recall of politicians, let alone the recall of an entire government on such grounds. Furthermore, the nature of the rigid two-party system is such that only a major split in the Governing party, resulting in fresh elections, would provide that opportunity. In practical terms only the Budget session provides the opportunity for the Senate to force the Government to a Double Dissolution.
Will the Democrats be prepared to change their policy on blocking supply in these exceptional circumstances? Remember that the Budget is not just a financial statement. It reflects the entire range of Government action. The alternative is to live for three years with a Government that achieved power by deception.
Klaas Woldring
Pearl Beach
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A green affinity program has been launched, under which 5% of the value of STD, mobile and international calls on residential phone lines can be given to an incorporated community or environment group of your choice. A further 5% is largely directed to environment programs at the discretion of the Byron Bay-based fundraising group called Earth Share.
The Green Net program is being run in conjunction with New Tel, one of our few Australian-owned phone companies, who advertise low-cost local, STD and international services. The program website contains price comparisons, and further details are available by calling 1300 720 205.
A slightly different program is also offered to businesses ad community groups. To join up, download an application form on the Earth Share website at www.earthshare.org.au/green_phone.htm (residential), or www.earthshare.org.au/greennet.htm (businesses and community groups). For residential lines, remember to include a note mentioning which group you'd like your 5% to be supporting.
Martin C. Oliver
Lismore
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Letters To The Editor