Bravo Grace
IN response to the letter complaining what it’s like for relatives of a sex abuser when a survivor speaks out (“Painful for families”, Letters, August 14), I have to say the pain is all due to the crime, not to the voice of a victim who wishes to identify herself. Facing the crime is one of the first steps of healing. Bravo to Grace and others like her who shine the light on the conditions that enabled the abuse to occur. They help arm a community against sex abuse, unlike silence and secrecy, where the abuse thrives. court action. Clearly this is a gross violation of a person’s right to freedom of speech and will discourage other victims of sexual abuse to come forward.
Spoiling the mood
READER Landon Bannister commented on the change to the lighting on the Tasman Bridge (Letters, August 14). I drove across it at night and can see what you mean, a very different ambience.
On the Brooker Highway, particularly in the Howard/Goodwood Rd area, we have sporadic lights that have failed for more than 12 months. Reporting them to TasNetworks sees it filed in the too-hard basket.
Poor southern fans
EVEN though they weren’t very good I would like to thank Tony Robinson, Di Manser and Ken Laughlin (Letters, August 10 and 12) for their thoughts as to why there are bigger AFL crowds at York Park than at Bellerive. As for frosts and fogs, they certainly won’t be a problem at Bellerive, because the freezing sea-breeze will blow them away before they could settle. My parents used to take me to the then Clarence ground to watch North Hobart play Clarence, and you had to dress like an Eskimo, and I doubt there has been any global warming happening at Bellerive. I think the crowd difference has a lot to do with the teams involved.
A lot more people travel from Melbourne to York Park than those who travel to Bellerive, because North Melbourne just don’t get reasonable crowds wherever they play. It’s not really fair to the people in the South they are stuck with the team the AFL dumped on them, so to Di and Ken, c’mon, that is why not many people travel from the North of the state to the South to watch AFL footy, and having to still dress like an Eskimo doesn’t help.
Car money-spinner
I DON’T agree with reader Glen Pears regarding regular compulsory roadworthy testing of vehicles (Letters, August 16). It simply becomes yet another life and financial burden on the community and a lucrative money-spinner for mechanics. I do think roadworthy testing should be required on sale of a secondhand vehicle and that plus police random inspections would be enough. Most drivers look after their vehicles. Let’s not go down the “regulate everything” road because there is a small group who don’t properly maintain their vehicles. Rather, target those doing the wrong thing.
Aboriginal life
MAX Watson imposes Hobbes’s 17th century opinion of life as “nasty, brutish and short” onto traditional Aboriginal lifestyles (”Population the problem”, Letters, August 16). There is ample evidence that Hobbes’s description was apt for many in England at the time. However, historical evidence suggests that life prior to British colonisation was markedly different for Aboriginal people. Tenacious myths about traditional Aboriginal life abound in mainstream Australia. To change this situation, it helps to question what we’ve been taught. There’s a wealth of accessible information from which we can learn.