Letters

Please keep your letters to no more than 200 words, this enables us to submit a number of letters for everyone to read. The comments and opinions on these pages do not reflect those of The Bribie Islander

Dear Editor, In response to the news they are banning six of Dr Seuss' books. I have penned a response, echoing his writing metre which is the pattern he used for most of his stories. (Hint - accent the syllable "paper" to get the rhythm) In Defence of Dr. Seuss As I read the newspaper on Thursday last week I was shocked to discover news awfully bleak. After 70 years they’ve finally decided Dr Suess is no good and his rhymes are derided! It’s not all of his books, I’m thankful to say, Just six of the titles – the rest are OK. But among the ones banned are two favourite’s of mine, I really protest - they’ve stepped over the line! “If I Ran the Zoo” and “McElligot’s Pool” Are ones they object to- a ridiculous rule! Political correctness has just gone too far Our freedoms and joys are now well below par. It’s not book burning, I s’pose, but pretty close to it, If we don’t speak up now, one day we will rue it! The young will miss out on such reading for fun And those PC pundits will surely have won! Harriet Remy-Maillet March 2021 Dear editor, 'Bribie Battler' is right in one aspect of his letter regarding Queensland's response to Covid 19 – an epidemic was not declared in this State. However, a worldwide PANDEMIC was declared by the WHO, and is the basis for Queensland's public health emergency, just as it has been for every Australian government, Federal, State and Local. If, as 'BB' suggests, there are hardly any cases of Covid 19 in Queensland perhaps it's because we (and the rest of the country) took the necessary precautions. It's a bit like saying you'll take the locks off your doors because you've never been burgled, when maybe you haven't been burgled because you have locks on your doors. Take a look at the USA, the UK or Brazil, to get an idea of what happened when restrictions were lifted or never imposed. Whether you consider the straight number of deaths or the percentage of population, the numbers are awful. These are places where the cult of "my freedom as an individual" outweighed the idea of "my responsibility as a citizen"; and where the perceived health of the economy was more important than the health of the people. Regards, D. Grey, Bribie. Dear editor, Colin Walker's article in your March 12th edition covers a lot of topics, but not with any intellectual rigour or depth of reasoning. Generational slanging, drug-taking youth, "political correctness" and "wokeness" all get a run, under the banner of the old "hardworking, sensible boomer" trope. I fall slap-bang in the middle of the baby boomer generation, and grew up taking as much of the "sex, drugs and rock'n'roll" lifestyle as I could get. Sorry you missed out Colin - it was a blast. But what did me in and led to long years of struggle and loss was the drug Colin didn't mention - alcohol. This drug - legally available without prescription - does more damage to our society than dope, heroin, ice, ecstasy and meth combined. Anything you can say about the effects of these drugs on mind and body can also be said of alcohol. Should it be banned too? Of course not - prohibition was a disastrous mistake, just as the "war on drugs" has been. Drugs have always been with us, and always will be, so legalise them, quality-control them, tax them. As for Colin's other worries, I am one boomer who is glad to be woke, and proud to be politically correct... and I have the bumper sticker to prove it! Yours, Ignatius Pink Dear Editor We read your letters and agree or disagree with the writers -which is how it should be as I certainly believe in vaccinations and hope we all are vaccinated for COVID. However Hazel, I do disagree with you on one important matter i.e. Trump's promotion of hydroxychlorequine. I have listened and read many reports from scientists on this and it is proven that if this drug is given as soon as someone is diagnosed with covid -it’s given with zinc- then the patient will get better. After 5 days when the virus gets to the lungs it’s too late and it won't work The WHO did their test on people in the later stages -it didn't work so they reported that without listening to health and scientific experts who tried to tell them why it didn't work. Trump never said it was a cure he had listened to the right people and knew it helped. Anything at all that Trump said was demonised by most of the media let’s face it. If people stop listening to the Greens and Labour station-sorry the ABC and believing everything they say they may start to listen to other views which is a healthy way to work out the truth

Regards M. White