Letters: Alec reigns supreme

Letters to the Editor.

Thanks Alec
As a follower of sport in Wanganui, and especially athletics, I would like to acknowledge Alec McNab's immense contribution to the sport both in Whanganui and nationally. He is in his 44th year at Wanganui Collegiate and his weekly results, musings and opinions have appeared in the Wanganui Chronicle on a purely voluntary basis for the past 16 years.

He has rarely missed a week in that time, and if he has, he will have had a very good explanation for the omission! His articles have not only been penned from Whanganui, but also various parts of the UK, Europe, the US, Australia and the Pacific Islands, always arriving on time.

His wholehearted support of his elite Whanganui and nationally ranked athletes is only matched by his fierce determination to take those athletes to their personal bests.

As a respected athletics coach, a winter sports fitness trainer and former physical education teacher at Collegiate, he is also an extremely able writer and communicator.

Alec reigns supreme in his sport with few peers in this country to match him.
A HUNT
Whanganui

We agree entirely - Editor.

Kingmaker
It is becoming obvious that the results of this election will be close. Unless Winston Peters makes up his mind which party he intends to support, a vote for NZ First will be a wasted vote.

If you want him to prop up Labour he will go with National and vice versa. It is doubtful that his standing members know who Winston will side with. He alone will make the decision. Going on past records we know that the hopes and votes of a nation can be set aside by one man? Is that democracy?
JEAN McDAVITT
Whanganui

Asthma city
I'm the first to admit I have a processing delay. For example, it's taken ages to get my head around council's change from "Family Friendly" to "Leading Edge", especially since the Environment section of the latter strategy has nothing to do with the environment. But suddenly it's perfectly clear thanks to a recent Chronicle headline: Whanganui at forefront as report highlights fatal effects of cold, damp homes.

That explains it all: we are leading edge and not family friendly. Great choice team! Perhaps next we'll see a rebranding from the River City to Asthma City.
DR NELSON LEBO
Whanganui

Moral absolutes
Russ Hay is upset that I have not read Sean Carroll's book The Making of the Fittest. He asserts that I therefore know nothing about what he sees as key information. He is right in that I have not read the book.

It is not in our library, and I don't have access to it. I have read the reviews, many of which quote the information regarding eye pigments, as you would expect them to. Also, the PAX6 gene is discussed in the reviews of Carroll's book.

People reading our letters probably wonder why we are writing them. They concern two opposing world views.

On the one hand we have atheism, which has evolution as its main mantra, and on the other we have old world creationism.

Evolution asserts that we are all evolved from pond scum. As such, we are worth no more than animals. If, on the other hand, we are created by God, we are valuable and worthy of respect.

Also, if we are evolved and there is no God, there is no such thing as moral absolutes, which are the product of religious systems.

The Ten Commandments, which our legal system is based on, are a product of Judaism and Christianity. If these moral absolutes are done away with, we are left with everyone having their own set of rules. So the rules that Hitler and Stalin imposed on their countries are just as valid as any other system. The mass murders these two leaders were responsible for are therefore perfectly acceptable.

Indeed, the Nuremburg trials of Nazi war criminals broke down because the defence lawyer claimed that the Nazi rule of law was legitimate in that society. It was only when the prosecution appealed to a "higher power" that the trials went ahead, resulting in convictions that most people would agree were totally justified.

I have no idea what world view Russ Hay aspires to, but my Christian world view demands moral absolutes that are binding for all - not relativism, where we each make up our own set of rules.

DAVID GASH
Whanganui