Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Valuing the gift of free speech
It’s an honour to be able to have our say, says Marlborough man and letter-writer Terry Ford.
caught up with him.
With an electronic typewriter and a ballpoint pen, Marlborough man Terry Ford says letter writing is one thing that can keep us tethered to our ‘‘humanness’’.
He writes letters to all sorts of people: cabinet ministers, the newspaper, and the heart surgeons who gave him an extra 25 years of life several decades ago.
Writing a letter to express your opinion, or to simply say thank you is a practice that connects us, and should be preserved, he said.
‘‘In a way, it’s personal. When you end up with a piece of paper, you’ve done it, you’ve handled it.’’
Ford believed the privilege of free speech was being forgotten in an age of globalisation and technology, that in fact was separating people.
Born and raised in Marlborough, Ford grew up during the Second World War and was involved with the Navy throughout the Cold War.
With soldiers
returning having seen ‘‘the brothels of Cairo and the slums of Rome’’, there was a sense of deep gratitude for the Kiwi life and a hope for the future.
‘‘As children we appreciated things like having free speech and the fact that nobody was telling us what to do,’’ he said.
‘‘It was obvious that had persevered at a great personal cost ... that got into my very being.
‘‘It wasn’t an obligation, it was almost an honour to be able to have your say.’’
At 83, Ford has seen great changes in Marlborough.
One that saddened him the most was a loss of a certain kind of local identity.
In an era where every town was surrounded by vegetable gardens and everyone knew the local politician, Ford said there was a greater sense of ‘‘connection between people.’’
‘‘The Grovetown community was a geographic thing ... it was a great feeling, you knew where you belonged,’’ he said.
‘‘I remember every Wednesday night my father used to get on his bike at go to the Grovetown Hall ... and they’d swap stories.’’
A reliance on technology and an increasingly globalised world has meant humans have lost touch with the land and their local identities, Ford said.
We don’t get our ‘‘hands in the dirt anymore’’ and we know more about Trump than our own local politicians.
‘‘There used to be a thing called the public. I don’t think we’ve got a public anymore, we’ve got people,’’ he said.
‘‘The people themselves have lost so much of their humanness – not their humanity, that’s a different word – I think they’re less human.
‘‘To me, being human is fighting and struggling, all in the bounds of common decency.’’
Tapping out a letter on his typewriter was a human and personal practice, Ford said, and an exercise in valuing the free speech our ancestors struggled for.
‘‘These freedoms that we value, if we don’t look after them, there’s always going to be some prick in the roundhouse who’ll take it away from you.’’
Sophie Trigger