I am 90 this year and my wife is no spring chicken but we still manage to avoid taking up spaces meant for the disabled. Surely people half my age can do the same?
Jim Adams
Fairy Springs
Cartoonist Rod Emmerson on the money
Emmerson, who draws the comical cartons that you print in Emmerson's View , is right on the money (Opinion, December 10).
While smoking is a filthy habit and kills people, some dying very undignified painful deaths, it probably doesn't cause as much domestic and social harm as booze. The anti-ciggie mob are obsessed with their cause to the point they can't figure out that more deaths are caused by alcohol-fuelled activities than smoking cigarettes, including drugs.
The Government is quite prepared to turn a blind eye to booze use because of the many millions of tax dollars it gets. It is just going to push smoking into a black market situation where smoking will still happen and it won't get the tax take.
There are always people who, for their own reasons, won't stop. I wonder why booze isn't a big enough problem to deserve the same treatment as smoking.
The situation definitely shows we have a one-eyed Government. If I'm still breathing in 2025, I'll probably die laughing.
Rod Petterson
Pomare, Rotorua
To jab or not to jab is an individual's decision
Ian Thomas (Letters, December 10) states less than seven per cent of people who have either been unable to access vaccination or have chosen not to do so are putting the vaccinated at risk and that the vaccinated deserve protection from this miserable minority.
If the vaccinations are so reliable what have the jabbed got to fear from the unjabbed?
The Bill of Rights states we have the right to control what happens to our own bodies and make medical decisions for ourselves free from restraint or coercion.
The Human Rights [Act] states protect the people of New Zealand against discrimination which is not happening as many people are losing their jobs as they make a decision as to what is right for them. They can't even get a haircut. Where is a salon for unjabbed people?
Is the New Zealand Government exempt from these [laws] as our rights and freedom have gone from our country?
If a person wants the jab or declines it, that should be their decision.
Helen Goodwin
Lake Ōkataina
Rotorua's Christmas cheer not up to scratch
What a disappointment Rotorua CBD is.
Took my four-year-old grandson to see the Christmas Tree and festivities adorning the shops and spend some money as well.
We looked hard in shop windows for Christmas decorations and found virtually nothing.
We saw the artificial Christmas Tree at Te Manawa, which was nice. Rotorua being a timber town, surely a real tree would be better?
Watching television broadcasts from London, New York, Sydney and some towns in New Zealand, decorations, fairy lights and hearing Christmas songs are brilliant.
Surely Rotorua, a smallish city, could rival any of these.
Perhaps a competition could be an incentive - and proceeds go to a worthy cause.
There is nothing to attract young and older people into town for a wonderful Christmas experience as they shop. We may as well shop online.
It seems like Christmas doesn't exist in Rotorua.
Happy Christmas everyone.
Jessica Pickering
Lynmore
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