Letters To The Editor

Responsibility for Election comment is taken by S. Thomsen, 218 Molesworth St Lismore.

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Vale Fay

Lismore Councillors and staff were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Fay Smith, a highly respected Bundjalung Elder.

Fay was always willing to officiate on behalf of the local Aboriginal community at Council functions and participated in and helped organise numerous community events. She was a valued and long-standing member of Council's Wayiganna Aboriginal Advisory Committee.

Fay was one of the founding members of the Jarjum Pre-School in the late 1980s. Her community involvement spread far and wide and was an inspiration to all. Her interest and dedication in promoting education opportunities for Aboriginal people through TAFE and the university was very important. From a Council perspective, I can pass on how grateful we were for her involvement in the Olympic Torch relay, the Councillor mentoring program, and innumerable other community issues.

Auntie Fay, as she was known to everyone, always made every effort to further the Reconciliation process. Her passing is a great loss to both the Aboriginal community, and the Lismore community as a whole, and will be long remembered.

Merv King
Mayor,
Lismore City Council

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Defence Support

The members of the City of Lismore RSL Sub-branch wish to publicly express our support and respect for all Australian Defence Force Personnel who are currently on deployment overseas in various postings. This reassurance also extends to the families and loved ones that are left behind.

While this sub-branch appreciates that various sections of the community have differing points of view on the Australian Governments military involvement in the Middle East and respect their democratic right to protest, we urge the community to show its support of our ADF personnel by reassuring their loved ones that their service is appreciated whatever political divisions may exist.

Whatever may be the ADF role in the weeks and months ahead, we admire them and wish them well and pray for their wellbeing and a safe and quick return home. We encourage the community to support the men and women of the ADF on their return home so as not to repeat the injustice bestowed on returning personnel from previous conflicts such as Vietnam by some sections of the community.

"Lest we forget"

Wilson McClelland
Hon Secretary
City of Lismore RSL Sub-branch

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Water Year

This is the International Year of Fresh Water. On March 22 the UN celebrates "World Water Day". On that day, like every other, around 6,000 children will die of water related diseases and millions of women and girls will spend many hours fetching water.

While the world is attempting to deal with the problem of terrorism, for every death at the hands of terrorists, 2,000 people die of poverty and each day 25,000 will die as a result of consumption and exposure to unsafe water.

The Prime Minister needs to get things into perspective. Australia's fair share of the costs of water and sanitation projects for third world countries could be met by a fraction of the money being wasted on the proposed war and missile defence systems.

Elly Wilson
Goonellabah

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NIMBY Dam

With the rapid growth of Ballina, maybe Don Page (Echo, Feb 20), would like the dam in his backyard.

Jennifer Juleff
Dunoon

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Lost Faith

I have been deeply disappointed with Australia's involvement and lack of human compassion towards the problems involving Iraq and terrorism. Up until Saturday March 1, I believed Australia was going one step too far with it's new anti-terrorism procedures. I now no longer believe this I know it.

Before, my belief was based on morals and ethics but now my knowledge is based upon the pain that the suspicion surrounding the introduction of these procedures has caused my family.

My father is a New Zealand citizen who has lived in Australia for over 20 years. Because of his he has no living relatives, besides my younger brother, my mother and me, within the country. The only living relatives he does have, an older brother and sister, are both living in New Zealand and have not been seen under happy circumstances in 13 years.

On the morning of Saturday, March 1, my father received a telephone call from Brisbane International Airport. My extremely distraught Aunt was not being allowed into the country because of a trifling offence, which occurred 25 years ago. I find it absolutely ridiculous that my Aunt, who is an honest woman, is still being punished for crime she committed when she was only just a young lady. The only crime that I am aware of that carries a 25 year sentence is murder, as in which anybody was harmed in any way, shape or form. As if this isn't ludicrous enough my Aunt has returned to the country at least twice since then, once to live here for at least five years. She was married to an Australian and gave birth to one of her two daughters here.

My Aunt is not an 'undesirable character', she is the manager of a childcare centre owned by a church. Does this sound like the kind of person we should be working hard to keep out of our country? I think not. But because of the way Australia is viewing the outside world at this point in time a mistake my Aunt made, as she was only becoming an adult has blacklisted her from a country she once called home. This has prevented her from seeing her younger brother and her niece and nephew, both of whom she has not seen since they were babies.

I was brought up to believe that I should be grateful to live in Australia. That Australia was 'the lucky country'. And that it was a place I could be proud to call home. But I now feel betrayed and I don't believe I can go out into the world and proudly tell people that I am an Australian. I am a 16-year-old girl who has lost faith in a country she once loved, and lost trust in a Prime Minister and government she once thought she could believe in. Is this how we want Australia's youth to be brought up? Maybe it's time for Australians to start rethinking their values.

Raechal Dare
Bentley

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Green Joke

So the Greens Party want to see legalised drug use introduced into our society. If anyone can stop laughing long enough to be serious the following questions would be obvious;

Where would these illegal drugs be obtained from? Would they be free or if not how would a price be established?

Is there any guarantee that present drug pushers would automatically retire and leave the field to the drug houses?

One can only assume that they have been indulging in too many samples of the products they aspire to legalise.

I am a little uncertain as to whether to exhort them to continue with their idiotic political platform and thereby demonstrate to the community their total ineptitude in gaining widespread support or to hope they will hide in a hollow log somewhere and fade into obscurity.

Jon Tate
Goonellabah

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Dems on Schools

The recommendations of official inquiries into dysfunctional government bodies or other sectors of our society very often reflect Australian Democrat policy in that area. This is no accident.

The recent Vinson Inquiry into public education is a case in point. This inquiry recommended, amongst other things, smaller class sizes for infants and junior primary, increased funding of teacher professional development and greater support for students with special needs.

These remedies, for our seriously ailing public education system, are just the beginning and much more work is needed to be done.

For me, Australian Democrat education policies are the most important of all our progressive policies, because education is the antidote to fear. We believe that public education is a cornerstone of civilised society. Done well, it is the path to a functional, evolving society.

The 'old' parties are having trouble deciding their priorities for this election but to me it is clear. Start at the beginning - education.

It may seem too-good-to-be-true, but Democrats deliver rational, long term solutions and ideas.

Julia Melland
Democrat candidate for Lismore

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Fiji Visit

Last week I went to Fiji on behalf of the Commonwealth Local Government Forum to run some training sessions for newly-elected local government representatives. Prior to going I checked the Department of Foreign Affairs website to see what they were saying about travel to Fiji and was somewhat surprised to find that they were warning Australians to be very careful in Fiji.

To go to Fiji I required no visa and when I arrived at Suva was given a visa and processed very efficiently. On leaving I paid a $20 departure tax. Whilst there I felt as safe as I would in any country town in Australia and much safer than in many other cities in Australia and around the world. The Fijian people were warm and friendly, and went out of their way to support me. However they asked me questions about my country and told me things I was not aware of before.

I did not know that any Fijian person, whether an indigenous Fijian, Indian Fijian or expatriate from Australia and New Zealand who has taken out Fijian citizenship, requires a visa to enter Australia as a tourist. They pay $160 for that visa. It takes at least a week to process (unless you know someone in the right place) and someone in Australia has to pay a bond of several thousand dollars guaranteeing that the tourists will return to Fiji. The saddest case I heard was of a young Indian Fijian couple, recently engaged. The young man wanted to bring his fiance to Australia to meet his aunts, uncles and cousins, but this was denied. One of them had to stay in Fiji so that our government could be sure that the other person would return to Fiji.

I was told that after the coup of 2000 some Indian and also indigenous Fijians despair about the future for Fiji and some are seeking to leave to secure a better future for their children. I was also told that most Fijians want to stay in their country and work towards a more secure future there. After all, we all love the countries of our birth and it is only when we know that either our own personal safety or the future of our children is insecure that we would choose to leave our homes and communities. It takes great personal courage to do this.

I would like to think that our government's policy is well-intent­ioned. However, there are these niggling questions about why it is that tourists from other countries, such as England and New Zealand (also members of the former Commonwealth) can enter Australia without these requirements when the records show that they are much more likely to overstay or disappear. Is it that they are 'more like us' and therefore that isn't a problem?

I was also asked why it is that our government, through its warnings to Australians, is damaging Fiji's fragile economy by suggesting that Australians might be 'unsafe' in Fiji and therefore working against their attempts to promote Fiji as a tourist destination and their financial viability.

Sadly, I could not answer their questions. All I could do was to honour their concerns by telling them that I would raise them in the only way I know how.

Ros Irwin
Lismore

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Grevillia Dam

As the population on the coast has skyrocketed, our councillors and politicians have all taken credit for everything from increased housing, a thriving building industry, job creation right down to the fantastic north coast lifestyle.

Alas we have no water, who's fault is it? Well that could be discussed for a long time and at great expense, when all we really need is someone to look at the options and present a plan or two to the same people who put them in power and keep them there.

It's time now for them to not only take responsibility but to put forward those plans for the sake of the public. Stop shaking hands, kissing babies and spring into action.

Currently the only people talking at the public are irate consumers who have been led astray.

Right now there is a dam that could be built without much fuss or expense and it has been an option for many years and would today be the perfect option.

The gorge at Grevillia could be dammed, at minimal cost and hold a huge amount of water. It would be one of the best dams on the north coast and would have many other benefits.

1. detour Summerland way via base of Glennies chair and shorten the route to Brisbane by approx: 20km.

2. eliminate the steep mountain climb around Mt Lindsay for road transport trailer on a return trip to Brisbane.

3. reduce traffic on coast by providing safe alternative route directly into the industrial section of Brisbane.

4. protect the sensitive environment from destructive farming practices.

5. provide another tourist destination for a needy economy.

6. provide employment on a scale not seen in the area for some time.

7. aquisition of land in the area is inexpensive.

8. make the area safer from the ravages of fire.

9. aid in flood mitigation from Kyogle to Ballina.

10. provide some of the cleanest drinking water to a deserving public.

The big question now is what are we paying our councillors, numerous boards and elected politicians for?

One should probably put restrictions on the water bills we pay.

Fred Klutke
Grevillia

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Forlorn Hopes

I feel that John Howard amply demonstrated his unfitness for the democratic leadership of this country some months ago, when George W Bush made his "How I Will Rule The World" declaration.

Bush therein uni­laterally and drast­ically set the conditions under which the US would permit the rest of us to live on this planet.

At this point a responsible, democratic PM, would have had our 'mutual defence' alliance either re-negotiated or annulled.

Incredibly our government said and did nothing. As a result our PM now has us as potential aggressors, in a war that could well prove a human disaster, and which would put us with the so-called 'rogue states' and beyond. Bush, Blair and Howard are no doubt too self-righteous to imagine themselves in the international dock, as war criminals, an unlikely but not impossible event, in the minds of some people.

Bush is obviously impatient to get his war going, and we should all be fearful of what lies beyond.

It is clear that Bush feels that the US will have done their share of 'the Lord's work', when Iraq is suitably flattened, Saddam eliminated and the oil safely in their responsible hands. Their first task will be complete. It will be left to the lesser states to pick up the pieces. In the case of possible atrocities, as the Lord's workers, they will be beyond international justice, as has been planned, such is their self-righteousness.

The viable options for this world are not US domination, or Saddam Hussein's meat grinders. Even our half blind PM should be able to see that. Why for instance, cannot Iraq be contained by US and other power, as was the once mighty Soviet Union?

Clearly maintaining peace required brains, imagination and dedication. Our PM so far has shown himself as the consummate industrious, devious, politician, - stubborn and ambitious, this sadly is not enough. One only hopes that he will transcend himself on this demanding occasion, and quickly. It seems a forlorn hope.

D N Brown
Wollongbar

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You First

In reply to G Wallace (Echo, Feb 13): war­mongering Wallace stated "we are at war right now". So, can he tell us when we declared war? He also said "we should all be prepared to fight against evil where ever it rears its ugly head". So why don't you pack up ya medication and get going boy? Australia and ya family is counting on your brave desert warrior gung-ho go-get-the-bastard-from-Baghdad attitude.

Another laugh Wobbly Wal gave us with his fast diminishing intellect and increasing dementia was his chest-pumping alliance with another axis of evil, John Howard, George Bush and the very suspect Fred Nile, our best known homophobe. But the real joke about this warmongering whacko, who we suspect is just another pen and ink warrior is that after going round and round in ever repeatedly lying cycles with any hard to find facts and after half an Echo page of really warming up his gattling gun biro he was mercifully guillotined and sensibly shut up.

Last of all a quick word about evil warlord dictatorships who killed thousands of people in another country as well as its own soldiers. USA, with agent orange, our troops as well then told them their deformed children more or less were statistically average.

Which country is the only one in the world to use nuclear weapons and threatens to use them again? The USA of course. Whose poisoned millions of its neighbours, uselessly trying to kill cocoa plants that it's own citizens use by the ton on a daily basis? The USA of course. Native South American Indians used it as a natural medicine for thousands of years with no ill effects. Until the Yankee crims and corrupt Yankee governments and coppers turned it into a murderous multibillion dollar business.

If you've got long enough Wallace, become a human instead of a moronic racist clone.

One world with only one sort of life gradually making it unliveable. And George Bloody Bush cheated in the presidential election to achieve one thing - to get Saddam Hussein, and be the biggest bully in world history.

Frosty Grego
Evans Head

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The G Force

I don't recall a bigger day of utter shame than the day we lived through all those unpatriotic misguided unAustralians pathetic led by the nose foolish mob who demonstrated and marched recently and took over our streets!

So before all you hippies, greenies, Democrats, Labor supporters and so-called church leaders skite, pat yourselves on the back relax and sit down with a cup of coffee cross your legs and air your perceived knowledge on how to fix all our woes please allow me to inform you all you wankers on what you have just achieved if you can be so sick in the head to call it that!

1. Saddam has had 12 years and you have all proved nothing because none of the placards downed "Saddam" the murderer but just slung off at our own leaders Howard and Bush, Saddam has obviously seen all this stupidity as support for him and why wouldn't he, it was anti-Howard that's it!

2. It has now been suggested it has raised him possibly to Hero status

3. This dumb brainless action has helped to undermine the pressure being applied to this swine and all efforts by the free world may now have been for nothing.

4. It may well have a serious effect when they see division in there own countries

5. Although the radical organisers knew exactly what they were doing the awful result was that a lot of led by the nose gullible do-gooders were sucked in to swell the numbers.

Now obviously most who marched are from ga ga land and I do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out Saddam will never give up power. Twelve long years have proved that. Diplomacy, talk, coups of tea alfresco on the patio threats more talk pleading asking a bit more talking perhaps when are these demonstrating dumb fools gong to wake up all the above has been done to the point of nausea and it has failed! Now, to prevent this shocking dictator from torturing abusing and murdering his own people with or without the useless UN. He must be forcibly removed, yes by war these demonstrators are traitors pure and simple so it's now way past time all you pullers down of Howard Bush Blair.

Democracy and the free world used off that bright yellow streak down your backs, ceased your disgraceful unpatriotic gutless behaviour and get behind the best PM we have ever had bar none this March was almost totally political. Of course the US is our one and only hope together, hopefully with Britain to preserve freedom and democracy maybe Indonesia? We are a small nation by all these examples and sooner or later we will need help to defend ourselves of course with exception of the first ;two all of the latter would knock us off in a heart beat! The USA saved us and gave back our country, same as France WW2! Give support to the Yanks, plain common sense. Say no to them now what do think they will say to us when we need their help, the free worlds only hope and they are our friends, so now all you demonstrating thoughtless arrogant rabble, what have you spineless lot achieved besides supporting a murderer and dividing a wonderful county, Nothing! Please don't get too cocky as 18 million did not march. War is no the only action the Saddam's of this world will understand. Past wars on his ilk prove that. Wake up and join the majority of decent Aussies. Traitors - the lot of you demonstrators.

G Wallace
South Lismore

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Conventions Ignored

There is a quotation (with many variations and multiple attributions) to the effect that: "For every complex problem there is a simple solution. And it's invariably wrong."

War against Iraq is just such a simplistic and horribly wrong 'solution'.

From personal observation, the more informed an individual is about this war the more likely they are to be convinced that this is so. Adding weight to that argument are the many retired senior military personnel with first hand experience of war who now speak sober warnings against this conflict.

A journalist, who has seen first-hand what the warmongrels haven't, recently said:

"Unlike the witness-nothing windbags, who appear almost to yearn for war, I have seen the victims of cluster bombs. From many snapshots, here is one. Two children writhe on a dirt floor, their bodies displaying hundreds of small open wounds. They have been showered with tiny plastic objects from an American 'pellet bomb', the prototype of the cluster bomb. As the darts move through their vital organs, they die a terrible death, the equivalent of swallowing acid."

I invite those in favour of this war to write to this paper and state in hard figures, exactly how many children's deaths of this kind they would find acceptable in order to achieve ANY of the continually flip-flopping goals of this war we've been presented with to date.

As in Afghanistan, many of the poorly-armed Iraqi soldiers about to face an enemy armed with the most sophisticated weapons a

$300-billion-a-year-budget can buy are young conscripts. Is there any doubt there will be horrors similar to this from the Gulf War: "... the slaughter of Iraqi conscripts was conducted in [an] industrial way. Three brigades of the United States 1st Mechanised Infantry Division used snowploughs mounted on tanks and combat earth movers, mostly at night, to bury terrified Iraqi teenagers, including the wounded, in more than 70 miles of trenches. A brigade commander, Colonel Anthony Moreno, said: 'For all I know, we could have killed thousands.' "

It is John Howard whom we must hold responsible if Australia is involved in war crimes, and certainly NOT our military personnel, whom he has sent at the bidding of a foreign President.

A recent TV programme confirmed the corruption and law-bending that produced Bush's narrow election victory. He has dragged democracy through the dirt in his own country. Which makes his assertion that his aim is the democratisation of Iraq particularly repugnant.

Cloud
Kyogle

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Fundamentally Flawed

Jim Lee's strident letter (Echo, Feb 21) against religious fundamentalism a few weeks ago carried more than a hint of fundamentalism itself. Relax, Jim, religion is not the cause of war. Religion might fuel war but the negative tendency to go to war is part of human nature and is often tied to some sort of fundamentalism but it doesn't have to be religious. Myths, legends and religions are part of the accumulated wealth of humans gathered in their evolutionary journey through thousands of years, a code for dimensions other than the physical that is in a transferable package.

It's no good saying all that religious thinking and experiencing has been a waste of time. Religion has been the vehicle that has moulded tribes into countries and then into nations eventually crossing international boundaries.

Religious thinking that appears nonsensical now may have been just what humans needed and all they could cope with at the time.

In the big picture humans are just like the birds and the bees; cross pollinators for nature. All the conflicts that have happened were probably fairly inevitable as humans of different styles and intents crossed paths over the centuries and in the process plants and animals have gone from one side of the glove to the other and one sided humans have become multi-faceted as they have learnt new skills and ideas as well as coming across new foods and products.

Humans have been quick to new foods and processes that improve their physical existence to new mental or religious ideas that has been hard to budge. Prejudice and fundamentalism have often stood in the way.

We have reached an age in history where it is possible to be so mobile mentally that prejudice and fundamentalism should no longer be a problem. Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell amongst others the place of myth and religion in human society and how it affects humans individually and collectively. Now is the time for humans to become multi-faceted in their understanding of themselves. That includes looking at their religious natures.

We need to study and observe as many religions, both ancient and modern, as possible looking for links and commonalties as well as having a look and maybe experiencing the roots of many religions which was usually communing with the forces of the earth in an exalted state brought on by a suitable plant based drug.

The drug war is based on prejudice and paranoia like any other war. We're too technologically clever and dangerous to be carrying on in a degraded emotional manner.

Humans are ready for an evolutionary jump.

Lynne Oldfield
Nimbin

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In Moderation

For some time now I have noticed that hardly a week passes that your paper doesn't give coverage to drug and alcohol issues. The parallel is very striking, because to the writers 'if drugs are bad, alcohol is even worse.'

Then they give all the details with facts and figures.

This type of logic is misleading, to say the least. The assumption is if you drink alcohol, then you get drunk. If you get drunk, you become an alcoholic. Now following this line is like saying, ' I am thirsty; I drink water; I get sick' - because it is well known that everything in excess is bad.

It happens that I come from a country where the consumption of alcohol (mostly wine) has always been freely available to everyone, even, though limited, to children, and everywhere (in public places) with no government restriction whatsoever, as here in Australia. Statistically, in Italy, alcoholism, in my days, was lower than many other western countries.

In drinking alcohol on a regular basis, one does not need to get drunk. I never got really drunk - tipsy, yes, once in 62 years.

However, with drugs it is another story altogether. When you meddle with them, you are lucky if you come out all in one piece. Most of the time, once you start taking drugs, you never stop, and you get hurt; you want more of the same and stronger.

The truth is we live in a Disney-land society where everything is fun. As a result we have to deal with consequences, from abortion, prostitution, AIDs, suicide, to needle-exchanges. What a world!

Nadir Martello
East Lismore

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Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there were Seven Ugly Sisters oil cartel (five US, two Dutch-British). These multinational companies made huge profits from foreign countries they exploited. Today there are others in the exploiting business of oil, such as US President Bush and his Texas oil cronies, all waiting for the invasion of Iraq. President Bush says, "either you are with us or you are with the terrorists".

Gold, power, greed and oil the chief causes of wars. Megalomaniacs like President Bush and Co. don't give a damn about human lives that are lost to achieve their goal. They don't have to fight wars, just start them and leave the fighting for others. Iraq spells war, and war means the killing of the innocents, babies, the very young, the very old and those in between. Think for a moment of all the widows and orphans, the maimed and mutilated if and when Iraq is invaded.

Yes Saddam Hussein is evil and bad, but what about President Bush and that families history of "dirty deeds" in the past years. Read about them and your hair will curl. Starting with President George W Bush who became president despite receiving fewer votes than Al Gore. Bush can thank his brother the Governor of Florida for his help.

In a September article for the American Freedom News, a non-establishment media outlet, Rick Wiles exposed George W Bush's relationship with the family of Osama Bin Laden: Salem bin la den, Osama's older brother was an investor in Arbusto Energy - the Texas oil company started by George W Bush.

It goes on to say, "Doing business with the enemy" is nothing new to the Bush family. Much of the Bush family wealth came from supplying needed raw materials and credit to Adolph Hitler's third Reich. Several business operations, managed by Prescott Bush, the Presidents grandfather, were seized by the US Government during World War 2 under the trading with the Enemy Act.

In 1942, Under the "Trading with the Enemy Act", the government took over Union Banking Corporation , in which Bush was a director. The US Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corps stock shares.

After becoming President in January 1989, Prescott Bush's son George Herbert Walker Bush - father of the current President, authorised a series of programs which not only armed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but also provided him with technology that assisted in his development of chemical weapons like saxin gas, and biological weapons.

In conclusion, I may say that when the Vietnam war ended it took our own Australian Government another 30 years to release their secrecy files to say that Vietnam war was wrong and we should never have been involved. Will it take another 30 years and another 500 Australian casualties to prove Iraqi war for no other reason than oil. Iraq produces two million barrels of oil a day and has 10% of the worlds known oil reserves and President Bush wants it.

Frank B Finch
Kyogle

• Edited for length

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Heretic Ads

From time to time there appears in your paper a full-page ad (or two) of manifold musings putting their own spin on the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church. It is obvious that the writers of these fraudulent writings are far from acquainted with the truth. But then "who to sue"? - the authors for writing such false defamatory rubbish or the paper for printing it?

The Catholic Church is increasingly regarded as fair game in the media at large, to such an extent that it constitutes a climate of intolerance of orthodoxy and tradition. The scandals of the last several years concerning traitorous priests and religious have been extremely painful not only for the victims of such crimes but for the good and faithful priests, religious and laity.

But then - Judas was also present at the last Supper before he left the company of Christ and his apostles.

And so it goes, if you are a free wheeling liberal 'Catholic' priest, religious or layperson, your heretical views will be given wide media coverage, perhaps even your own TV program where you and other liberal-minded or disenchanted Catholics can defy each other and your conclusions in defiance of the Rock on which Christ did build his Church.

I am concerned with what the media expresses so glibly as freedom of opinion enjoyed in this country, but that the public are unaware that a blasphemy law exists albeit ill-defined and at times treated with contempt.

Religious persecution in the West does not belong to the past as judges makes concessions to the spirit of the age when the perpetrators of obscene and blasphemous books film or so called works of art come before them.

It is then that those who are playing the part of persecutors are anxious to disown the fact, but blasphemy is persecution in its most cowardly form. How long will it be before swearing on the Bible or any holy book will be defunct? Unless a witness has before his mind the fear of punishment in the next life, no reliance can be placed on his testimony in a court of law.

Is reverence for the name of God, the creator of all laws, natural and moral, covered by man's laws? The name is the icon of the person, it demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it - for which cause god also hath

Exalted thin and given him a name above all names: that is in the name of Jesus every knee should bend (Phillipians 2:9-10).

Perhaps the community is unaware of the meaning of the name of Jesus - saviour of man kind or god made man and Christ i.e. Messiah in Hebrew and anointed one in Greek.

The followers of Jesus Christ would prefer an occurrence of blasphemy against the Holt name, the Virgin Mary and all that we hold sacred, to be as rare as it is among the followers of Buddha, Mohammed, Shiva, Aboriginal heroes at all.

As for us, how easily "Jesus" or "Christ" slips off the tongue as a curse, though not always with malice, yet this habit does not excuse us -0 "you shall not take the name of the lord your God in Vain" (Ex. 20:7, Deut. 5:11)

In these times of impending war and terrorism it is well to remember that blasphemy against god incurs Diving justice, which allows us to reap the vengeance we call down by our profanities.

Mary B Mason
Lismore Heights

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Rates Rort

Local Government general rates should reflect the cost of the services provided to each householder and not be linked to the value of land. However, while Councils have the flexibility of deciding what rate (cents per dollar land value) is levied, it is the State Government through the Local Government Act which decrees that general rates must be linked to land values. This archaic linkage goes back to medieval England. It is not appropriate to Australia post 2000, it is not working, it is inequitable, it is unfair, and it forces Councils to impose pseudo wealth taxes for which it has no authority from the people, and I'm sure it would rather not do.

We need to protect our senior citizens and anyone else in our community from being forced out of their homes because of this linkage with land values. The nexus must be broken if we are to survive as a thinking, caring and decent community.

Every householder should pay a basic charge to cover the cost of the services provided such as street maintenance etc. in the same way as we pay separately for sewer and domestic waste services. After all, the cost of the service to a home on a block of land valued at $60,000 is unlikely to differ much, if any, from that home on a block valued at $600,000. In some cases it may even cost more to service a lower valued block, which may be located in a less well developed or a lower density area.

While Councils should be able to levy a special rate for a limited period for a specific purpose to cover say street trees in a particular area, the remaining funding of Local Government should be by the Commonwealth Government by way of a percentage of income tax receipts. In this way, not just householders, but all residents will be contributing to the cost of maintaining ancillary services to a local government area such as library services, beach, recreation and sporting grounds maintenance etc.

For too long we have sat back and let the politicians and bureaucrats run our lives. We should exercise the only real authority we have and only vote in the coming State election for the political party which commits itself to breaking the linkage between Local Government rates and land values.

Greg Moore
Angourie

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Womenslink

By She Hawke

There was a time when women stood together
arms linked
around missiles of madness
fences of forgery
and each other.

Greenham Common seems so long ago now
and Cockburn Sound
and the Cyclists for Nuclear Disarmament
and Karen Silkwood
and the other actions that brought us together
from and to far flung dots on the map

You couldn't kill our spirit then
as we waxed and waned with the moon
we were women for survival
in our twenties and thirties then.
We thought if we lived past thirty five
it would be a miracle
now some of us are menopausal
memories of strip searches
and thumb screws far behind us

…until today
when it erupted all over again

I seek out my sisters many coloured arms
so we can show them
still linked
to the world
as we pen our hopes in prayers and poems
some of us too frail now to take to the streets
some of us deceased
thinking globally and acting locally
some of us traveling through the journey
on the inside
locale of the most profound revolution

…and they answer in a different tone
my sisters
we're not fighting
we were never fighting
we're singing from our souls
speaking the naked truth
we're taking up space
on the Channel 9 news,
living in the moment as if it's our last
because if some boys and their toys
have their way
the only arms that will be linking
will be nuclear
and these moments will be our last

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