Letter of the week: Caroline Mabry, Glen Eden
Guy Body's cartoon about Trump's mob storming Capitol Hill over his electoral loss made me chuckle. Still, I can't forget how frightening it can be.
I am an ex-American citizen and I have seen this before. When I was 9 years old, the
McCarthy era flourished (1940-50s) and the general population was led to believe that the communist menace had infiltrated our democracy.
Many successful people were wrongly accused of undermining our country and their careers ruined, or they were imprisoned.
My father, a university academic at the time, was ordered to report students who had subversive ideas. He refused. Next he had to report a colleague as a communist infiltrator. He refused. We were frightened that my dad might go to jail. We prepared to escape to Canada. Fortunately, McCarthy was confronted at Supreme Court Hearings, his falsehoods revealed and we were safe.
Your editorial (Weekend Herald, January 9) described the above situations perfectly; ''The nation that fancied itself as a beacon of democracy has unleashed anti-democratic forces on itself.''
Cultivated swamp
Tom Dillane's report (Weekend Herald, January 9) shows at last somebody has recognised Auckland has been cultivating a polluted swamp within a mile of Queen St for a century.
Hobson Bay was an anchorage for sailing ships with its yellow sand borders kept clean by the action of waves twice every day. Beach Rd was an appropriate name. Children could paddle from Victoria Ave to Ōrākei Pt.
Tāmaki Drive and the rail line changed everything - wave movement ceased. Pollution and rubbish from the roads and surfaces of Remuera, Newmarket and Parnell have been contained within the bay ever since.
The area will never return to its original state, but 100m away - in Ōrākei Basin - we can see what would be a great improvement.
With the rail embankment completed and flush gates fitted beneath the road bridge at Parnell Pool it would create a six-day-a-week pool with a rapid flush.
Such an embankment would also be able to be used to protect Beach and Portland Roads, two of those most threatened by the effects of higher tides due in the near future.
John E. Binsley, Parnell.
Priority stinks
Hobson Bay beach severely polluted by residents' own effluent (Weekend Herald, January 9) is a case of literally you-know-whatting in your own nest. Half a million spent on "their" beach and now they want more priority. It irks them that so much was spent and they can't use it.
We all feel that way. What is so special about their patch? Milford Beach is also polluted on a regular basis.
Nick Vigar and Safeswim need to "sort out" bigger beaches first and promising to sort out Hobson Bay stinks. The wealthy have their own pools, let alone their own beach.
Steve Russell, Hillcrest.
Double Dutch
Your article (Weekend Herald, Janaury 9) about "what's behind place names" can have a simple solution.
Coming from the northern part of the Netherlands from the province of Friesland, we have a different language from the Dutch. Therefore, our place names signs are in both names, the Dutch and the Friesian and everyone can read it. Problem fixed, everyone happy.
D. Hoekstra, Henderson.
Taking responsibility
Last Saturday's paper (Weekend Herald, January 9) first perplexed me and then infuriated me - well I guess it stirs up the grey matter.
I was perplexed by the headline "Festival drugs shock".
Seemingly, some party drugs were adulterated with toxic ingredients which did several people a power of no good - but why would this come as a shock? What else would you expect to happen?
I was infuriated to read a suggestion that the Government (i.e. the taxpayers) should pay for more testing of these drugs - why? Those who are prepared to take such substances - fully aware of the risks entailed - must also accept the consequences for their own actions.
I see no justification for involving taxpayers - it is simply not their responsibility.
Geraldine Taylor, Remuera.