Northland Age
  • Northland Age home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Rural
  • Opinion
  • Kaitaia weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northland Age

Letters: What happened to telling kids 'No?'

By Carl Bromley
Northland Age·
26 Jun, 2019 10:32 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Photo / Jason Oxenham

Photo / Jason Oxenham

I engaged in a post today about the government funding of pRep, a preventative treatment against the disease of HIV, derived mainly from promiscuous homosexual and bisexual behaviour, which, because of bisexualism, as also impacts promiscuous heterosexuals.

To paraphrase, the spirit of the attitude amidst the plethora of ignorant comments on the subject was the ideology of 'They are going to do it anyway,' so best to fund the treatment to prevent disease. This resonated with me in terms of a broader prevailing attitude among Kiwis in regards to our dysfunctional way of not addressing issues on a wider social, legal and political scale.

Rather than being constructively and effectively proactive, it seems we have resigned ourselves as a nation to set the bar low, inviting, promoting, and it seems almost daring, wishing and wanting our people to live not up to the bar, not over it, but beneath it, ever so a little lower as time goes on.

Why? Could it be an underlying ideology, a floored and destructive fallacy that asserts, 'They are going to anyway?' Therefore…

Give pPrep, give em Gardasil, because they're going to do it anyway.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Give them condoms, give 'em the pill, because they're going to anyway.

Give them booze, bring it home, drink it here underage, because they're going to anyway.

Give them free needles to exchange, because they're going to anyway.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Give them support for the brothels, because they're going to anyway.

Give them drugs, weed and what have you eventually, because they are going to anyway.

Give them food, give them housing, give them a free ride, because they're going to do it anyway.

Give 'em the car keys, let 'em joy ride, because they are going to anyway.

Discover more

Environment

Ferret sightings ring alarm bells

26 Jun 10:17 PM

Letter to the Editor: Pseudo science

17 Mar 12:19 AM

Give them home detention, soft sentencing, or just let 'em off the hook, because they are going to anyway.

Give them drugs, cars, sex, a noose, a knife, euthanasia, what the heck-ever, because they're going to anyway.

OTT, you think? Am I embellishing the point? Or is there something wrong with this picture? What happened to the good authority, good parenting? Good leadership?

When did we start letting the tail wag the dog as a nation? When did we quit believing in the potential of people to stand up, step up and raise the bar? Have we just got lazy, ignorant, or is it that we have been duped or bewitched by an evil ideology hell-bent on our people's destruction? Or are there just plain stupid people reigning in position of great influence and power?

Perhaps we are a nation of cowards, gutless wonders who just don't have the spine, or the love and concern to step up, stand up, and say 'No. You're not going to do it anyway. 'No, you don't have to do it anyway,' and 'Yes, we will do everything thing in our power to stop you, make it uncomfortable for you, even lovingly painful for you if you try to do it anyway.

And 'Yes, we will make it even more painful for you if you do it anyway in the hope that you will not do It again.'

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

This is the tough love of loving leadership, of good authority, of good parenting that has been lost.

Wreck yourself with loose sex, with drink, with drugs, with unbridled freedom and experimentation. Go ahead and kill yourselves, because you're going to do it anyway. We won't stop you, we won't smack you when you're young, we won't restrain you in your teens, we won't punish you even as adults. Who are we to judge you? Be free to destroy yourself.

Really? This is the New Zealand we seem to have; is it the New Zealand we want? Will we continue to have it?

Leadership starts at the top. The top of the country is sick, and needs healing or scuttling, or whatever it takes to see good authority, good leadership, the governance of loving parents from the privacy of the home to the publicity of government. We need good authority that is willing to go through the pain for the gain with and for all the people who live in this once proud, safe, free, loving and glorious nation that used to be called Godzone.

It's 'They're going to do it anyway,' or it's time to step up, stand up, and say for the love of all who dwell in this land, 'No. You're not!'

CARL BROMLEY

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Husband, Dad, Kiwi

Christchurch

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northland Age

Northland Age

Far North news in brief: National average rent drops, Far North Council hosts Kerikeri mini-expo

18 Jun 06:00 PM
Northland Age

Environment Court approves 115-lot rural subdivision near Kerikeri

18 Jun 05:00 PM
Northland Age

On The Up: 'Proud of him': Teen's netball journey from umpire to player

18 Jun 12:00 AM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northland Age

Far North news in brief:  National average rent drops, Far North Council hosts Kerikeri mini-expo

Far North news in brief: National average rent drops, Far North Council hosts Kerikeri mini-expo

18 Jun 06:00 PM

News snippets from the Far North.

Environment Court approves 115-lot rural subdivision near Kerikeri

Environment Court approves 115-lot rural subdivision near Kerikeri

18 Jun 05:00 PM
On The Up: 'Proud of him': Teen's netball journey from umpire to player

On The Up: 'Proud of him': Teen's netball journey from umpire to player

18 Jun 12:00 AM
'A lot of tears': Concerns over changes to post-mortem examinations

'A lot of tears': Concerns over changes to post-mortem examinations

17 Jun 05:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northland Age e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to The Northland Age
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northland Age
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP