The Bay of Plenty Times welcomes letters and comments from readers. Below you can read the letters we have published in your newspaper today.
TODAY'S LETTERS
Let's have sirens not drive-in movies
Drive in movies? Seriously sounds like another move by the council to waste our rate-paying dollars.
Whether this is funded by sponsorship or not it
will cost the ratepayer. There are already four movie theatres in this town.
What the council should spend ratepayers' dollars on is the tsunami warning system, which should cover sirens in all low lying areas, optional in home warning systems for residents if they wish to purchase and mobile phone alerts with an "opt in/opt out" text message alert system (like Japan residents) at the cost of the council all integrated with our national tsunami warning centre.
Luke Fisher, Mount Maunganui
Priorities wrong
You report that a David Ratte is threatening crime if the Government doesn't put up the $200 a day he needs to wean him off his habit (News, March 28).
How sad, but also how typical of those who delve into such things, (no doubt for the pleasure it brought at the time), then, when addicted, knowing their "rights" to taxpayer support, remain oblivious to the fact that their problem is self-inflicted and in all likelihood can be self-corrected, given the will to do so.
Further, what sense of "entitlement" leads such people to claim, in times of widespread hardship, preference over other people with genuine needs, or to justify the threat of adopting a life of crime if their demand remains unfulfilled?
And, why is any of that "news" in any event?
David Lee, Papamoa
Dame Kiri?
Sydney, St Andrews Cathedral ... London, Westminster Abbey. Concerts for Christchurch quake/New Zealand. Hayley Westenra came home to sing at the Christchurch Memorial. No mention of our Dame Kiri Te Kanawa with all her wealth and stature doing anything for her homeland.
Mallee Watson,Te Puna
Thanks Tommy
Thank you Tommy Kapai for your uplifting column week by week, I for one am sad that you have called it a day - for now.
Tauranga in many ways is a very new city, and many newcomers will be ignorant of the special history, stories and character of Tauranga Moana that Tommy knows so well. It is important that we do not lose touch with our cultures and also our heritage.
Sir Winston Churchill offers us a very helpful reminder: "One of the signs of a great society is the diligence with which it passes culture from one generation to the next. ... When one generation no longer esteems its own heritage and fails to pass the torch to its children, it is saying in essence that the very foundation, principles and experiences that make the society what it is are no longer valid.
"What is required when this happens and the society has lost its way, is for leaders to arise who have not forgotten the discarded legacy and who love it with all their hearts.
"Let's hear more genuine voices out there reminding us who we are, where we've come from, what is valuable and worth passing on and where we want to go - together. I appreciate my friends from many nations and cultures, there is much we can learn from each other."
Good on you Tommy for taking a risk and telling it like you see it.
(Abridged)
James Muir, Gate Pa
No sob stories
Re Dead teen's last day "normal" (News, March 29).
Give the police a break - in respect of the latest teenager's threats to shoot. We don't need sob stories about mothers in Christchurch and drinking with a lifetime friend. He did wrong. The police did their best to prevent further conflict. We need them to protect us.
Jeri Knight, Katikati
Text views
* Having returned from Surfers Paradise, i'd suggest the Mount should actually aim to be as fabulous, instead of trying to prevent it happening. Australia has got it right and we are embarrassingly pitiful in comparison. I know where i'd rather be.
* 'Predator of kids' What's it gonna take for the community probation services & police to get that he's 100% going to reoffend? He has already! In a ideal world people like him should be shot.Obviously its not but they definitely shouldnt be living by schools or where kids are! Your job is to keep people safe, not put them in harms way. Linda Thurlow
* Unless you have actually been through a natural disaster you cannot have any idea of what people are going through. Show more support not criticism. How would any of you opinionated persons cope if the big one struck here? Not very well I suspect!
* With regard 2 tsunami alerts ... Whn doesnt hav a mobile ph these days? There should b a text alert. Even if we hav 2 register at our cost. I'd certainly pay. Annie Emett
* Papamoa tsumani warning take action NOW what would yr property b worth after one go elsewhere ASAP while no traffic problems think abt it dont hang around
* Drive in movies wat a gd idea il b all 4 it !
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