Get all those trucks off the road and use rail for freight instead

I ENTIRELY agree with the sentiments of letter writer W. N. Brook (ODT, 11.10.18), who feels that more goods should be carried by rail rather than on the roads.

On the same day, I met with a friend in a Dunedin Ward St cafe about 9.30am. In the space of just 40 minutes, no fewer than 14 full logging trucks went past the window.

Is such road traffic really necessary and indeed appropriate in this day and age, with traffic congestion, air pollution, deterioration of the road surface and potential accidents?

We have a railway that should be able to take large quantities of logs directly to Port Chalmers for shipping.

Why should such massive quantities of goods damage the roads and clog up the traffic?

Someone needs to get on to dealing with this issue without delay.

Tony Binns

Waverley

Spiritual assistance

IT is hard to know whether Ian Harris is disingenuous or just careless when he casually slides from the language of the ‘‘spiritual’’ to that of the ‘‘moral’’ (ODT, 12.10.18).

The mystical overtones of the former tend to shade values or behaviours that can be quite alien to the liberal, egalitarian values of Bernie Sanders, et al, as summarised by Mr Harris. I am reminded of a reference to a tribe whose ritual inspired a oncefamous theatre event of the 1960s, who, though headhunters and possibly cannibals, were considered ‘‘incredibly spiritual’’.

Similarly his observation that Alexandria OcasioCortez is driven, not by ‘‘ideology but a moral imperative’’, overlooks the popular negative overtones of the word. It’s always the other side who are driven by ideology, whereas we are driven by compassion, commonsense, courage, moral fortitude and so on.

The difficulty with this kind of spiritual notion is that it merely confers an inarguable correctness on a point of view, be it Left, Right, or anywhere else, and distracts from whatever intrinsic merits, or otherwise, it might have.

Mr Sanders is capable of arguing his case without spiritual assistance.

Harry Love Northeast Valley