FIONA DONNE
Aramoho
Looking after their own
I certainly do not condone the assault on the Green Party leader, James Shaw.
However, I am surprised at the public outpouring of anger and grief being expressed by politicians from all parties.
People are assaulted every day in this country, people are murdered, children are abused and killed — but where are the politicians' tears for this? There are certainly no tears shed when they are lining up at the trough to milk every last cent from the public purse for their own good.
There are certainly no tears shed when the NZ Police Force is at insufficient levels to offer our everyday citizens and children the protection we need to ensure our safety and well-being when going about our everyday business.
I hope the politicians look further afield than themselves when reviewing measures to ensure people's safety.
ROBERT ALLEN
Durie Hill
Fear-driven censorship
We all possess a deadly weapon. Our brain.
A brain does not need guns to cause mayhem if it snaps or is driven to madness.
Banning gun ownership and censorship of what we can share on social media are not the solution.
Telling us we face 14 years in jail for sharing a genuine news item is out of proportion to the situations where most people might do this.
We should not be intimidated or frightened into surrendering yet more of our rights to a war on terror in which we have little say.
Critical thinking and statistics tell us we have little to fear from the direct effects of terrorism.
There is a difference between sensible precaution and fear-driven acceptance of censorship and other loss of hard-won rights.
We should all be aware that after we gave up many of our freedoms and rights after 9/11, all the problems this was supposed to solve got worse. Let's not make the same mistake here.
Perhaps we have more to fear from yet more mistakes by our politicians than we do from the appalling actions of a rare individual whose brain we don't yet understand.
ROBIN WAKELING
Karori
Money-spinning doco
I have found the Whanganui Chronicle to be fair and balanced printed press.
I ask that you refrain from inflammatory opinion, as evidenced in the bias presented in the "Now Showing" column, on Monday, March 11, which speaks of "making up our own minds" while clearly showing what side the writer is on.
The maker of Leaving Neverland was a longtime friend of Jackson — and a defence witness at his trial — and was granted repeated opportunities for his own career and invited into the family's inner circle. When finally ousted by the family, he began a series of lawsuits, which were thrown out of court.
Finally, HBO took him on in creating this money-spinning and much-hyped story ...
And Michael Jackson is no longer here to defend himself. May I suggest anyone who supports MJ to play his music on all possible platforms, such as Spotify and YouTube.
CHANNA MIRIAM KNUCKEY
Castlecliff
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