Rodeos have been a part of country life nearly everywhere. It allows farmers to show off their skills, just some of what they do every day. I think some townies regard any form of restraint or use of an animal as cruel.
There is, or was, a top competing dressage horse who used to throw a tantrum if "his" anthem was not the one played for the winner. Sir Tristram (champion racehorse sire) would greet the blacksmith with a whinny and lift the sore hoof.
Many animals are more intelligent than we understand. And they like active lives.
SARA DICKON
(25 dogs, 17 horses, 5 cats, 1 calf, chickens, ducks, turkeys)
Whanganui
Butt out, please
In the last paragraph of his unintelligible but mercifully brief March 15 letter headed "Assisted suicide", F R Halpin seems to issue a challenge: "How about does pain have a purpose?" he asks.
My answer to that is: Yes, it's nature's way of teaching kids not to touch hot objects. That much I can understand. But I'm flummoxed when busybodies like Mr Halpin try to influence the framing and passing of laws about how I, and others who don't share their religious beliefs, should deal with physical pain during and at the end of our lives.
Likewise, I can't understand the purpose of pain inflicted on children. I'm talking about all those priests who rape their young parishioners, causing acute physical and lifelong emotional pain which leads many of their victims to commit suicide.
I also have no way of relating to those god-believers who worship icons depicting a bloody crucifixion that is alleged to have occurred more than 2000 years ago.
This seems to me the ultimate celebration of a uniquely painful way to die, and of course Easter will soon offer them a smorgasbord of sadism.
I'm bemused that people like Mr Halpin want to enjoy all the pain they can get on their death beds, but they're welcome to it. However, I greatly resent their attempts to poke their haughty noses into the business of those of us who do not share their pain-worshipping ways and want the right to decide, in consultation with our medical advisers, when it's our time to die.
Just butt out, please, Mr Halpin.
CAROL WEBB
Whanganui
Women only
Re the Abortion Review:
I wonder how many abortions your writers Russ Hay, Ken Orr, K A Benfell and other men have either had or decided not to have?
I suggest this debate should be for women only.
JEAN MCDAVITT
Whanganui
Name change
The front-page Chronicle article "Council push to rename reserve," (March 16), makes us aware of yet another move by councillors to alter the name of a substantial part of our town.
This article ends with the comment that "consultation will run between March 17 and May 26" and invites us to visit the council website for more information. This I did, but there was nothing on the opening page, however a search brought up a document named "Queen's Park Reserve Management Plan", but headed "Summary of Park Values and Key Objectives and Policies from Pukenamu/Queen's Park Reserve Management Plan."
Is this document evidence that the council has already decided to change the name, making any "consultation" with ratepayers just another charade, similar to earlier name changes?
V W BALLANCE
Westmere
Why change?
I thought I had retired from writing to the editor, but recent announcements from our mayor have forced a rethink.
Firstly, he tells everybody that freedom campers are welcome in our city, so they should all head for Wanganui. Well, that's fine, Hamish, as long as they know where you live and they camp outside your gate.
My experience of freedom campers has been almost entirely unpleasant.
It seems to me that "freedom", when applied to campers, means freedom to use anywhere as a toilet, freedom to leave behind anything not wanted today, freedom to help oneself to anything not under armed guard, and freedom to use any language they think apt to anyone who tries to point out that this is not the way to behave. So they might be welcome at your place, Hamish, but please point them in the opposite direction to mine.
Next, Hamish proposes to give additional names to already well known places. For instance, he proposes "Pukenamu/Queen's Park" instead of just "Queen's Park".
Now, I don't know how old Hamish is, but he might be old enough to remember the result of the occupation and subsequent name change of Moutoa Gardens. The general population have a "don't care" attitude to that area now and leave it to the protesters and their descendants for their annual party.
Now if Hamish wants to engender a "don't care" attitude to other parts of the city, he's going the right way about it.
I would prefer that people remain proud of their city and the various parts of it. So leave the name as you found it. Do no harm.
G A MCGRATH
Whanganui
Fluoride safe
On March 19 Lucy McDougall stated that community water fluoridation at 0.7 parts per million caused a wide range of problems, including that it is a neurotoxin.
No quality research states anything of the kind.
And as for the rest of her claims, if there was any truth in them, with over 500 million people worldwide enjoying the benefits of community water fluoridation, there would be thousands of medical and dental case histories to support her stance.
But when you ask an anti-fluoride supporter to list some, they never do, because there is not any.
Recently, Harvard University stated fluoridated water is safe. Children and adults who consume a typical diet, drink optimally fluoridated water, and use fluoridated dental products as recommended will not exceed the maximum levels for fluoride. And they'll have healthier teeth.
CHRIS PRICE
Palmerston North
Scaremongers
In response to Stuart Mathieson's "Scaremongers" (letters, March 19), it is fluoridation promoters who endeavour to scaremonger people into accepting a class 7 poison scrubbed from the chimneys of the phosphate fertiliser industry, a known neurotoxin, to be added to their drinking water, with exaggerated and misleading claims that swallowing it will help their teeth.
The gold standard in health sciences, the Cochrane Collaboration (2015), concluded there is no modern, reliable evidence fluoridation reduces dental decay. New Zealand school dental statistics show no difference in decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated areas.
I would like Stuart to answer these questions:
1. A recently published 12-year, US Government funded, multimillion-dollar study, carried out by a team of distinguished neurotoxicity researchers from Harvard, the University of Toronto, Michigan and McGill — who have written over 50 papers on similar studies of other environmental toxins like lead and mercury — has found that exposure of children in utero to the same fluoride levels NZ women are exposed to reduces IQ. If that does not make you rethink fluoridation, then what will?
2. Why continue with fluoridation when the benefits are dubious and there are other public health programmes being carried out in non-fluoridated countries and areas of New Zealand that are really effective, save money and are acceptable to everyone?
MARY BYRNE
Featherston
End of life bill
F G Rose apparently did not like the information evening about the euthanasia bill, the meeting addressed by three doctors with years of experience in palliative care.
These doctors gave their time and expertise to inform the public about this new bill and what it would mean for us.
Mr Rose apparently did not like the fact that these doctors were not in favour of the bill becoming law. He attacks the meeting and people there for not agreeing with his views on the matter.
One of the points made at the meeting was that, under this bill if it became law, doctors who refuse to be part of the process, at least by referral, could be fined or imprisoned.
Mr Rose keeps referring to "choice", but apparently that does not include the choice of doctors not to be involved in any way in the killing of their patients.
K A BENFELL
Whanganui
Bible studies
Mandy Donne-Lee writes (March 15) about her personal "childlike" faith and her distrust of modern biblical scholarship. Personally, I have found that modern studies help me to grow up and to leave behind infantile beliefs.
Biblical scholarship, history and theology are all enlightening, and the scholarly debate is fun. Sadly, most churches are too scared or too lazy to engage with it; or they actively discourage it.
Many Christians, exasperated by the lack of intellectual stimulation, have left the churches, but continue their Christian lives, patiently longing for something to get their teeth into. Meanwhile the churches bewail the lack of attendance!
The job for us in the 21st century is to grow up and learn to collaborate with God, inspired by the humanity and death of Jesus.
The sort of Christian faith which your Thought for Today writers compose is dull, banal, fundamentalist and largely ignorant of 21st century debate.
For heaven's sake, brighten it up!
RICHARD PEIRCE
Marton
Send your letters to: The Editor, Wanganui Chronicle, 100 Guyton St, PO Box 433, Wanganui 4500; or email editor@wanganuichronicle.co.nz
