Stirring the pot

I think Paul, you may have taken the Chronicle letter-writing thing a little too seriously. I confess to being one of the "vocal white males" you refer to in your Front Bit editorial (July 6).
Think of it more as a sort of non-contact sport, or a literary game of ping-pong which allows robust debate of our evolving colonial past.
Potonga Neilson is another regular who's on record as saying he likes to goad others with his opinions, so perhaps we think in like manner as I too like to stir the pot occasionally. When asked to speak at a marae wedding in Christchurch recently I used words which, if reported in today's media, would have been abbreviated to "bl ... b.." and "n ... " but I was afterwards thanked for my speech by two kaumatua who were clearly pleased that it had "cracked everybody up!" and weren't patronised by today's tendency to shut down any dialogue perceived to be stepping on tender cultural toes.
Or are they just a little more relaxed down there?
I look forward to sitting down with Potonga over a cup of coffee one day - having a verbal punch-up, a good laugh, then tot up the score while we wait for the ref's whistle to blow again. You wouldn't deny grumpy old men a retirement interest, would you?
MURRAY CRAWFORD
WHANGANUI