Love, peace and understanding are what we need

IN light of the tragic event in Christchurch last Friday, it is time for all of us to search our hearts and souls.

We have heard the words ‘‘This is not us’’ so many times but is this really true?

On the day before the massacre, I overheard a ‘‘Christian’’ person in my own community say, ‘‘Those Buddhists — we don’t want them’’.

The seed of hatred in that man who took up his guns and killed 50 people starts with all of us.

Make no mistake, prejudice is alive in New Zealand, and it is up to all of us to make a commitment to eliminate those ‘‘anti’’ feelings in ourselves, and to speak up towards those we hear expressing their illinformed bias.

We are all human, in the same boat together. We must try to think in terms of ‘‘we’’, not ‘‘them and us’’.

All religions teach the message of peace and love. Kindness and compassion and understanding for others is the only ‘‘one true faith’’. Live it. Jenny Sheat

Wyndham

[Abridged]

I WRITE from Canada where many share the sorrow of the people of New Zealand, particularly the Muslim community, following the tragic events in Christchurch. The massacre is stunning in both its horror and its bravado.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has spoken words too often silenced by concern for the stability of governments: ‘‘I can tell you one thing right now; our gun laws will change.’’

She is to be commended for honouring her primary human instinct rather than her primary political instinct.

In leading with compassion, she sets a standard for her colleagues around the world.

Gretta Vosper West Hill United Church minister

Toronto, Ontario

OUR country was shamed and stained on Friday, March 15, 2019.

Sadly, it has taken 50 martyrs to make our nation wake up fully and deeply realise that we are one.

We may be from different cultures and religious beliefs but we are one — one in mind, one heart, and one spirit.

What happened to those martyrs and their beloved Muslim communities has deeply affected all of us.

In the words of Marje Piercy: ‘‘Life is the first gift, love is the second and understanding the third.’’

I would add another and that is tolerance, at all times, for without it we are doomed. The Rev Wayne Healey

Oamaru

HOW heartening to read an ODT editorial (20.3.19) clearly describing the essence of Aotearoa New Zealand.

I would like to add to those profound statements that many seem to forget that we are an entire nation of immigrants, descendants of settlers who crossed vast oceans, over hundreds of years, to find a better life.

This is exactly what the victims of Friday’s heinous hate crime sought when they reached our shores. We all belong. Wensley Santure

Mandeville