Take a page out of Santa’s book — be generous

The season of joy is here, and Santa has distributed his presents far and wide. It is a time of generosity and often excess although my earliest memories are of my grandmother, from the generation who lived through the Depression, always with a strong voice, “Save the wrapping paper”.

The austerity of her time was, of course, sensible, but we all knew that for us it would mean a smaller present the next year and the following years till no paper was left.

The message we should all remember from Christmas, whether or not we believe in the religious component, is that we should be generous and not just to our family and friends but everyone else.

Santa has finished his journey and his present-giving so it's our time to take up the job and help out for the rest of 2020.

Dennis Fitzgerald Melbourne

Australia

Raw milk supported

I congratulate my MP, Mr Lawrence Yule, for his comments regarding Lindsay Farm and its problem with MPI raiding raw milk collection points. I hope Mr Yule can help to put a stop to MPI's aggressive policy, which must be seen as akin to a State Police action, totally alien to our Kiwi ethos.

Presumably MPI expect all the cows at Lindsay Farm to be milked each day, and the milk thrown away! What sort of people are they?

It is patently obvious that collection points actually help to keep the milk fresh and safe.

MPI should stop inferring that these are a health risk.

Edward Hamilton

Hastings

McCain’s America

James Smith (January 4) criticises others’ blinkered thinking then puts on blinkers himself (Matthew 7:5 obviously did not register).

Millions do not support Donald Trump. His supporters include the right wing and white supremacist groups which have flourished under his watch and whose actions he condemns only reluctantly.

The Catholic Church is not alone in having sexual miscreants amongst its pastors (American televangelists James Bakker and Tony Alamo, amongst others, come to mind). Perhaps Mr Smith’s wall should be applied.

Humility and meekness also are not virtues Mr Smith values or understands, as shown by his disparagement of Mahatma Gandhi’s appearance and views. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” — The Bible, Matthew 5:5

Presumably, the Mexican “bad hombres” Mr Smith refers to also include the small children separated from their parents behind steel barriers in border internment centres. “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not help you?’ He will reply ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me’,” — Matthew 25: 44-45.

Meghan McCain (daughter of John McCain, decorated Vietnam veteran, Republican senator, man of integrity) said at her father’s funeral (to which Donald Trump was very pointedly not invited): “The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold . . . The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again, because America was always great.”

Leonard Poon

Hastings