Letters: Seeds of hatred now weeds

Illegal Firearms seized or handed in to police.

WHEN our daughter, Sarah, was a teenager, Janice and I sent her away for a year. We didn't want to get rid of her, far from it, but we did want her to go.

We sent her to Honduras on a student exchange with AFS.

We wanted her to experience another culture, quite different from ours. We didn't have the internet then. A year was a long time.

We also hosted students ourselves, from Hong Kong, Paraguay and Sri Lanka, also for a year. We did this for free. We did it because we believe in peace. We believed that the more people share cultures the more they understand. The more they respect each other.

AFS was started by members of US ambulance teams returning from the two world wars. They'd seen enough killing. They wanted to do something to prevent future wars, future intolerance, future genocide, future massacres.

After the Christchurch shooting this week, I heard from some of these AFS students. They sent me their tears.

Just about all of the soldiers who fought in World War II are gone now. So are the nurses, so are the ambulance drivers. Who now remembers why there was a war?

Who remembers what comes from intolerance, racism, xenophobia, and violence?

Violence against people who have beliefs and lives different to us, but just as valid. Well, we are finding out, and it's very ugly.

The seeds aren't only planted by weak leaders not calling out the haters, though they do their share. They are sown by everyone who makes a racist joke (no, it is never a joke) or sees themselves as superior, or makes fun of another culture just because they're different.

Well, it's time we stopped. The seeds are growing. And they are weeds.

TERRY DOWDESWELL
Whanganui

Stop nonsense on guns

What the hell?

A civilian drives around with two semi-automatic guns in his boot ...

How can that happen? Surely the only people who need such lethal artillery are the NZ Defence Force?

But, apparently, anyone can buy such weapons here — all you need is the right licence.
This nonsense has to stop.

The alleged gunman who shot Muslim worshippers in Christchurch was a member of a "sporting club".

Sporting seems a hugely inappropriate word. If we must have gun clubs, then make sure all weapons are securely locked away at the club after use. Nobody should be taking them home.

And if someone applies for a licence, then authorities need to take an in-depth look into their history; the groups they associate with; their social media presence.
Okay, farmers, animal rangers, the police etc — some people need a gun to go about their work. But no one else.

It's a much shorter step than we think to the gun-crazed culture of the United States.

MARK DAWSON
Whanganui

Our people massacred

Winston's rhetoric is repugnant.

Two matters of concern. When a person is murdered, we should say their name first, in this nightmare, Kiwis! It should be 50 Kiwis were murdered in cold blood, 50 Kiwis were also injured in this atrocity, and then ... yes, of course ... that this was a "targeted event" on those who are Muslim.

They are people first, Kiwis first, then their faith. The press could reflect and alter their language?

Our people have been massacred, our men, our women and our children; all are Kiwis, and who were slaughtered in an act of grace, of prayer ... for being followers of Islam. They are us; not a separate entity of Muslims first? It's a religious belief, not an ethnicity.

Secondly, a press headline says, "Time to recall MP's anti-migrant rhetoric." It would also truly pay to read the full article about Winston Peters.

We are all reflecting at this horrific time of losing so many Kiwis, tougher gun laws, Facebook and YouTube not able to control their, at times, Frankenstein-like monster and so on.

Winston Peters gets to be the Deputy PM for one reason only; he got to choose who would lead our nation ... not us, he alone.

His due in kind, despite being a minor, minor party, was to be Deputy PM.

Some would say this is not the time to refresh us on Winston's rhetoric, but it is up in media across NZ and mourning and discussion and debate goes hand-in-hand as in: how did this happen? Is his outlook as our nation's deputy leader acceptable to us?

To see him standing there, as our Deputy PM, in that room surrounded by grieving Kiwis, with his repeated on-record comments makes me so saddened.

I ask myself, is he any different to Senator Anning in Australia?

ROSS FALLEN
Castlecliff

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