Maybe education, health, fire, police should all be in step and bear a recognisable relationship to each other. We don't need to spend more money. We need to spend it more intelligently.
They are all our servants. They are all in our employ. Maybe we could all support future pay negotiations on the basis of working towards fair pay for all our employees' work of comparable social value. Any other basis looks, to me, to be badly flawed.
Meanwhile, saving a bloke's life twice in under a fortnight should not go unnoticed. To say I am grateful doesn't begin to tell the story.
And how good it was to see Mr Dawson make his "Mark" on the very first day of his new job.
FRED ROSE (Father Fred, ND)
Whanganui
Check of sources needed
Mr Coory needs to check his sources before writing. Just read "Revelation 21:8" and no mention of gay people at all, just whore-mongers, idolators etc. Nor was it clear if it was Jesus or God the Father who was allegedly speaking, but either way it is difficult to see how Mr Coory can assert that it was anyone other than the person who wrote the book: St John, I always thought.
Mr Folau might need help, but he needs rather more serious help than your correspondent can offer.
IAN PASHBY
Montsenelle, France
Bill reflects Pākehā values
Having just read Dame Tariana Turia's piece on the euthanasia bill, I have to thoroughly agree with her.
This bill is a Pākehā thing, reflecting Pākehā values, ethics and morality or, perhaps, a lack thereof.
If something is not pretty, a nuisance or (God forbid) expensive, let's eradicate it. Rather like pest eradication.
Life for most includes hardship; that is the reality. Hardship strengthens individuals,
families and communities, allows us to dig deep to mine the jewels that are within us all.
Just as with Whanganui's floods, Christchurch's massacre has resulted in an outpouring of compassion and help for fellow Kiwis, and so can health hurdles bring out the best in us.
Our health system should exist to provide full, loving support and care to patients and whanau. After all, it's our money paying for it. The expense of providing palliative care and extending lives should never rear its ugly head, because that is the road to convenience and legalised murder.
This concept would become easier to accept over time and wider parameters introduced until the Government usurps the power for this decision-making. Think how much money they could save, but beware your own life when you place yourself in their hands for healthcare.
As I said, pest eradication.
DENISE LOCKETT
Castlecliff
Sanctity of the unborn
When Jacinda Ardern told the Muslims of Christchurch they were "one of us" she presumably meant the visible Muslims and children in New Zealand, but not the Muslim unborn children, because legally they don't exist. Muslims, like Christians, believe in the sanctity of the unborn.
That's what will happen if abortion comes out of the Crimes Act and into the health category. Also, Minister for Justice Andrew Little, by retaining the "born alive" theory — meaning baby not recognised as a person until born and detached from the mother — means baby legally hasn't existed for the last nine months.
Conveniently for the pro-abortion side, this will stifle any complaint about horrific cruelty to the unborn child.
"Cynical satire" you might say, but this is what happens when the law departs from common sense and the values most of us have held fast over 2000 years. At 2017 61 per cent of Kiwis said they believed in God, and probably saw the unborn baby as a real person made in the image and likeness of God.
DON BREBNER
Omokoroa
Send your letters to: The Editor, Whanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Whanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
