Dogs on the beach: Letters, 16 December 2011

The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Here you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.

Don't lose sight of Christmas

Some recent articles have said that families within the community will be unable to have a Christmas.

It is unfortunately too easy to get entangled in the material commercial driving of Christmas and lose focus on what this time can be.

While raising my children on the DPB I had a young baby who was only 8 weeks old when her brother was diagnosed.

My daughter's first Christmas was up in Auckland with her brother in Neurological Intensive Care.

Not able to afford much I counted my blessing as the saying goes "there are others worse off than we were".

On Christmas morning I quickly went over to my son knowing that he had left a letter for Santa just as he had every year. To my surprise a letter of reply.

While my journey with a child sick was hard both emotionally and financially the one thing I am proud of is that during his time with us he left this earth knowing that material possessions meant nothing to me.

Love cannot and should not be measured in material items.

This is not a letter for sympathy but a letter about reflection and the importance to make the most of what your blessings are sometimes we just have to take time to look for them.

(Abridged)

Gloria McIsaac, Ohauiti

No place for dogs

To J Mackinnon, if you and other dog owners have been walking your dogs on the beach for more than six years then it has been six years too long.

I do agree with you that the bottles and the cans are unacceptable and I too pick these items up in order to keep the beach clean, but if I had a choice between picking up a bottle or mess from a dog then I know which one I would choose.

There are not things worse on the beach than dogs and what dogs do.

Its health risk and letting a dog wee on kids' sand castles and leaving dog mess on the beach is completely unacceptable as to your acceptance of it.

Yes, humans wee in the water. So bearing this in mind I have no problem with you and your other doggie mates taking your dogs out past the breaker line for them to wee. The sooner dogs are banned from the beach the better.

Peter Morris, Mount Maunganui

Over exposure

What is Mike Baker up to?

He seems to have appeared in the Bay of Plenty Times at least twice a week over the past month with either an article plus photo related to him as the new chairman of the foodbank, or has letters published criticising decisions made by the current Tauranga City Council.

Good for him on publicising the foodbank though.

I know for a fact, however, that many people are becoming more than a little irritated with seeing his name and photo appearing in the Bay of Plenty Times so much.

His criticism of the current Tauranga City Council is really a case of "the pot calling the kettle black".

In the immediate previous term of the TCC when he was a councillor, in the majority of cases he sided with the majority team that voted for the unpopular and costly choices for ratepayers.

Is he trying to convince himself and everyone else that he is really a good public-spirited bloke?

Question: If he is such a good public-spirited individual and did a good job when he was a councillor, why wasn't he elected back on to the TCC in 2010?

I and many others would be interested in Mr Baker's response.

Roger Bailey, Papamoa Beach

Mike Baker responds: The correspondent complains that I am appearing in the Bay of Plenty Times at least twice a week but firstly it has to be acknowledged that as the Bay of Plenty Times generously decided to make the foodbank the recipient of this year's Christmas Appeal that there had to be a spokesperson and that happened to be me. As chairman of this entirely volunteer organisation I was asked to be the liaison person.

Secondly, people had already warned me that a letter such as Roger Bailey's could occur but then Mr Bailey has constantly criticised whatever I have done in the past so why should now, or the future, be any different?

But unlike some, I do believe in freedom of speech.

I honestly did not realise that some people would believe that I should be precluded from forwarding letters to the editor just because I was a former councillor or as current chairman of the foodbank when in fact I have been forwarding letters to the newspapers for more than 15 years.

Mr Bailey's statement that I always supported the unpopular and costly choices for ratepayers is not borne out by fact.

I constantly opposed the Mount Greens project, never supported the huge funding of the TECT All Terrain Park, supported the consultative process for the sale of the May St reserve, opposed expensive boardwalks and always looked at ways to reduce costs or do things better- but this is difficult to achieve in just one term on the council.

However, in direct response to the question in Mr Bailey's letter, the answer is that not sufficient people voted for me and I accept that outcome as the proper and democratic way.