Letters: Everyone's responsibility to stop terrorism

A London poster lies between floral tributes near London Bridge. Photo/AP

I'd like to congratulate Winston Peters for his straightforward, no-punches-pulled article (Rotorua Daily Post, June 7) regarding everyone's responsibility to stem the tide of terrorism, beginning with those most intimately connected to the perpetrators.

While custom, tradition, conscience and religious and moral dictates must surely make alerting authorities to such monstrous behaviour a dangerous and heart-wrenching decision, perhaps additional encouragement can be taken by the reality that not only does such courage serve to uphold innocent life, but it also has the power to diminish the bigotry and fear that can taint all the good, decent and law-abiding people of the perpetrator's heritage.

Well-done, Mr Peters, for such "plain-language-speak". You do not stand alone.

MARY LEE WRIGHT
Rotorua

Assault on senses
I agree with Laraine Barker (Letters, June 5) the assaults on our ears emanating from some cafes and shops mean I won't even enter them but with others there is not much choice.

I whip through some sections of the other Fenton St supermarket as fast as I can to suffer the least possible exposure to the loud and dreary crooning singer.

Sometimes she is interrupted by an even louder voice summoning a staff member to a telephone, another assault on the customers' senses.

A staff member of one (now closed) hardware store used to dread December: three weeks or more of having to withstand Bing Crosby droning on about white Christmases, all day and every day.

Fortunately there are a few shops in town where one can browse (or work) in peace and quiet, and one or two have Radio NZ's Concert Programme on at an unobtrusive volume - even better!

R G MAYES
Rotorua

Distorted theory
GJ Philip (Letters, May 30) is in my view totally ignorant of science, evolution, etc, even worse he distorted the evolution theory as the origin of fascism and racialism. It was Hitler who distorted evolution.

Theory and Nietzsche's philosophy, using eugenics to claim Germans as superior race, this is dictatorship/fascism.

To replace biology course at school for bible study as GJ Philip advocates, to say the least is bigotry if not dictatorship.

Science, whether physics/chemistry/biology underlies humans' curiosity to seek truth. Scientific theory, whether evolution/relativity/quantum mechanics, are to be tested/debated but not believed.

Scientists by nature are sceptical, they argue but don't kill each other, but religion and politics are about belief, wars/terrorists.

STEVE CHOU
Rotorua

Better by bike
I read that in Copenhagen, with dedicated bikeways, more people now go to work by bike than by car, and that they have electronic route boards to help ease congestion while they better the bikeways.

MARK COLLET
Rotorua

Hospital care
As a youngster I played a dangerous sport and have the bruises to show for it; I have four children all born in hospitals, and I have cause to have visited many hospitals in Canada, UK and here in Rotorua, so I know a little about the subject.

I have just spent three days being operated on in our lovely hospital; although apprehensive at first, I was soon put at ease. Now I wish to state that Rotorua Hospital is probably the finest hospital anywhere.

The doctors and surgeons and nurses are the most professional, human, courteous, friendly and helpful people it is possible to meet and by the time they got to me they had already done a day's work; exhausted, worn out - but still smiling, friendly and helpful!

I will never forget the dedication and warm care with which I was treated - from surgeon to doctors to nurses, you are a lovely crew and I hold you all in the highest esteem possible; I never want to hear anybody criticise Rotorua Hospital - they are the best.

JIM ADAMS
Rotorua