Gold amid thorns
A couple of weeks ago I looked out over my driveway at an unruly, unpruned bramble that was waving metre-long branches roughly in the air in an autumn sky with plenty of blue and little cloud.
There, right in the middle of this emotional lot, was a single, golden rosette.
It's still there surrounded by those metre-long branches and if you look, deep in the recesses of the bramble, it is all black.
I called this hardy, little flower Israel Folau.
F R Halpin Gonville
Wage woes
After many hours of positive deliberations over Whanganui council's 10-year plan, ignorance and closed-mindedness raised its ugly head to spoil the party.
It happened when councillors debated seeking to investigate introducing the living wage to council staff who are on less than that currently.
There has been a growing groundswell of support around New Zealand for a living wage, with submissions to council.
The living wage is a figure calculated by the Family Centre Social Policy Research group and analysis by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
What appalled me was the successful coup, spearheaded by councillors with National Party affiliations, to suppress future discussions around introducing the living wage.
I'm only talking about having a report on the subject produced by council staff for further discussion - as mayor [Hamish] McDouall stated: "This is gathering information."
But some councillors had already made up their minds and were having none of it.
Councillor David Bennett confused the living wage with government discussions about raising the minimum wage to where the living wage is at present. He failed to understand that the two are totally different.
Steve Baron Whanganui
Gay parenting
I'd like to point out to Ken Orr that by making use of scientific technology, gay couples can and do rear children and may produce top level rugby players of either sex.
Neither Orr nor Benfell (Letters; May 15) appear to know that modern genetics are clear on "gayness" being driven by genes, not by environmental pressures. Nor yet by "choice".
This would argue that the acceptance of gays in modern democracies rests on such knowledge, as does a consequential distaste for the continued use of ancient biblical (and Koranic) notions of sin in relation to homosexuality.
For similar reasons, it is high time that the Catholic Church rescind its ancient requirement of priestly celibacy which has indubitably been a cause in the abuse of children, and the discrimination against women in the hierarchy of the church.
Now that is a "just cause" for the Orrs and Benfells of the world, for beyond Catholicism there are schismatic sects of Protestantism that continue to practise depredations against women and children.
Commonly such bodies stunt their young people by denying them modern education and advanced knowledge, by perverting their sexuality, by teaching them biblical literalism and by enclosing them psychologically, and often physically to limit their ability to make informed judgments about society at large.
Russ Hay Whanganui
