Blame game not the way forward

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

I feel I need to apologise to the editor and to the readers of this page.

I thought that by contributing I could stimulate a bit of intelligent, constructive debate.

However, the same old, same old responses occurred . . . blame, blame, blame.

We must acknowledge our history and learn from it, but blaming our behaviour on that history — real or imagined — is not the way forward.

The simple answer to the ills of our society would be to give our people the ability to take personal responsibility for their behaviour.

We are by nature a communal animal, and living within a community comes with certain obligations.

These include acceptable standards of behaviour — something our modern society seems to have lost sight of.

Tanith, you are obviously a man of education.

Perhaps with the influence you have, you could put aside the negatives of colonisation and the divisive situation that seems to follow.

Maybe you could even mention a few of the positives of our cosmopolitan population?

Some things that come to mind would be the population growth modern Maori has had, the extended life expectancy, health, housing, welfare, technology, our achievements as a united nation, and even your own very extensive European education.

I would never belittle the trauma caused by the conflicts and the wrongs that were perpetrated by the parties concerned that took place in the development of this country.

But surely there comes a time when, for the sake of future generations, we must put it behind us and move on?

Flawed religious teachings, bias, superstition, selfishness, extreme politics, negatives that are here and now are important issues — not ancient history that cannot be undone.

Philip Newdick