Matt GoldingCredit:.
Good move, Northcote
Well done to Northcote High School for weeding out problematic First Nations books (″Library pulls books deemed offensive″, 18/2). This is why school libraries are important, need proper funding and why students need dedicated and decisive staff.
School libraries are a vital part of our children’s education, and should get the support and funding that they need. Library collections need to be updated regularly, as this example clearly shows. There also needs to be government support to First Nations writers and publishers to fill this space.
I can only ask why it has taken so long for this change to come.
Asa Smith,
Montmorency
Don’t ban books
It is fanciful and possibly dangerous to pretend the past did not exist. Books should not be banned because they don’t have a balanced description of history or are factually wrong. It is medieval. When will the Bible be banned?
Norman Pollack, Armadale
Appreciate the GPs
Federal Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler thinks “there’s frankly a cultural issue within medicine” and ” we’ve got to get away from this idea that general practice is somehow a B grade”. But the government supports such impressions when other specialists get way more Medicare rebates funded by the government for the same amount of time spent with patients. Butler needs to appreciate general practitioners and support their life-saving work with appropriate Medicare rebates for all their services short and long but comprehensive.
Dr Samantha Bryant,
Kensington
Reactionary forces
I question Parnell Palme McGuinness’s assertion (Comment, 12/2) that “these days it’s usually the left that accuses the right of waging culture wars whenever there is any resistance to progressive politics”. McGuinness cites governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders who says, “most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight″.
Sanders served as Donald Trump’s White House press secretary, spinning Trump’s incendiary bigotry and anti- democratic acts on an almost daily basis. The idea that the right is ″just moseying along, minding their own cultural business and it is progressives who are attacking everything society holds sacred″ is flawed.
American so-called republican conservatism is anything but conservative. It has become a reactionary force, pursuing an agenda of dismantling the status quo to undermine democratic rights.
Dr Hannah Piterman, Toorak
Doubtful voice
Even before the referendum for the Voice is officially launched, Peter Dutton is predicting that it will fail. Deciding this without hearing the rationale for it would seem to call into question his purported need for detail.
Rose Marie Crowe, McKinnon
At last, fowl deeds may end
On my daily walks along the Mullum Mullum Creek, I rejoice in the freedom of the ducks often with ducklings in tow and silently wish all water fowl enjoyed this right. Finally at last, duck shooting in Victoria may be nearing its gruesome end. Common sense and compassion at last.
Cecily Falkingham, Donvale
Don’t mock M(o)e
Being a happy resident of Moe, (remember ″Moccasins On Everyone″?), I can readily empathise with Lyndall Thomas’ amusing column about the “stigma” of living in Frankston (Comment, 18/2). We Moe-ites have been suffering this for an eternity.
David Mitchel, Moe
Ticks all the boxes
So, Doug Hendrie (Comment, 12/2) thinks letter boxes are redundant. Regardless of mail, delivered by AusPost, during lockdown, I regaled my neighbours with handwritten notes, poems and pictorial paraphernalia to dispel the gloom.
Many neighbours replied in similar vein. There is joy in going to the letter box and receiving magazines and personal letters with stamps from around the world. I know my postie personally. Seeing her daily is a delight.
I am a compulsive letter writer and much prefer them to cold impersonal emails.
Avril Bradley, Frankston
Remember the children
The editorial ″Give children a voice at the table″ (12/2) highlights the fact that children’s needs and welfare are often neglected when it comes to government policies. This is especially evident in situations involving conflict.
Does Vladimir Putin reflect each night on the effect his war in Ukraine is having on innocent children? In many ongoing conflicts around the world, no matter how just the causes seem, the welfare of our most vulnerable children is often forgotten or ignored.
A more just and humane world would be one in which the well-being of the young and innocent are the first priority for political factions and governments when formulating policies.
Graeme Lechte,
Brunswick West
The dog of small things
The tenderness between older people and their dogs is often undervalued (″Old people’s home for dogs?″, 12/2). To greet each other gladly in the morning, eat quietly together and then stroll around a well-worn neighbourhood pathway, starts a good day. Later, sitting close on the couch and leaning in, is a peaceful way to pass time.
This kind of undemanding companionship makes life more meaningful for many of we elderly. To take this away as a requirement to enter aged care seems too harsh. Congratulations to those facilities that understand this.
Glenda Johnston, Queenscliff
Hits, not bombs
I prefer my B52s playing music.
Denis Young, Sandringham
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