My Account
4 lanes good, 2 lanes bad
The story in the latest Mahurangi Matters about the Matakana Link Road (MM August 1) is concerning. The suggestion that a two-lane road will later be extended to a four lane rightly has alarm bells ringing. Why do we continue to under-spec and build for today, or actually in this case yesterday, rather than the future? We know the area is growing, we know the traffic is bad now and will get worse. Look at Penlink, which was needed back in 1990s and still hasn’t been built. The battle I had with some councillors about building a roundabout at Matakana is another example. At least that was an argument I won, thanks to the generous gift of land from the developer and staff at Rodney who had some vision. It’s not ideal, but the alternative would have been dire. Just get on with it.
Penny Webster, Chair Matakana Coast Tourism
Delight in differences
In reply to John & Barbara Starrenburg, Kevin and Cheryl Bartlett and Margaret Barnyard (MM August 1). I’m not sure whether to laugh, cry, shake my head or scream. From the “gay bashing” to “your lifestyle” to “Christian freedom” (twice), “Christian point of view”, I thought the letter was a reprint from many, many, many years ago. We all have freedom. From the Hindu serving you sliced beef in the deli, or the Jewish person serving you roast pork, or the person filling your medical prescription for something they don’t believe in. What if it was reversed? What if an LGBTQ+ shop owner refused service to Christians because they didn’t agree with their faith? Or heterosexuals for their “lifestyle”? Or a male editor not printing letters from females? What’s next? A sign in the window saying who you don’t serve? Like apartheid in South Africa and America? It’s called not discriminating, not participating in bigotry or segregation, practicing tolerance and acceptance for people different to ourselves. We are all people. Does that sound familiar? As for talking about “lifestyle”, do you choose to be heterosexual? There are sufficient facts available to you to not be so willingly ignorant about the subject. To be so disproves your assertion that you are Christians.
Jill Mortlock, proud mother of one LGBTQ+ daughter and one non-LGBTQ+ daughter.
Selective morality
Folks last week used a highly contentious passage from Paul – a man who may have never met Christ during his ministry – to justify their point of view with regard to making a wedding cake for a gay couple (MM August 1). How much more forceful, then, should they be against the practice of making wedding cakes for divorced people, when the actual words of Christ are given in Matthew 5:32 and repeated in other verses. “But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Any accusation of bigotry and hypocrisy would surely be dispelled by applying such biblical principles to all.
Phil Heffernan, Te Arai
