TO all those cowards out there who threaten our children under the guise of drunkenness, who paint anti-Jewish graffiti on our schools under the cover of darkness, and who write and shout anti-Semitic posts and slogans under the mask of anonymity and the pretext of events in the Middle East, I say this: for centuries we were persecuted, impoverished, discriminated against, hated and victimised. For centuries we survived, regrouped and thrived. For millennia we defied the laws of nature and the laws of history.
“Never again” is not just a phrase for us but a principled cause. We are a people proud of the gifts we have given mankind, proud of surviving against all odds, and confident that we have much more to offer in the future.
Though few in number and spread to the four corners of Earth, we survived as a people, never assimilating into anonymity.
So crawl back into your holes, because this is one chick who isn’t scared and won’t be cowered by your deeds. My people will live after you’re long gone because hate never wins and justice and righteousness are not the product of a popular vote but the foundation on which all civilisation is established.
Alla Pilman, North Bondi, NSW
IN their threat to boycott The Sydney Morning Herald over the departure of columnist Mike Carlton, Muslim groups are confirming their support for terrorist group Hamas and its declared intent to eradicate Israel.
If Palestinians want peace, there is a straight forward solution for those living in Gaza — rid the strip of Hamas and accept the fact that the Israelis have made three attempts to establish a two-state solution. These offers would have guaranteed Palestinian autonomy and, eventually, statehood. In the long run, these offers provide a template for a solution to this protracted conflict and Australian Muslim groups should recognise that in their support of Hamas they are undermining any hope of peace for the Palestinian people.
Phil Herd, Kangaloon, NSW
Menace of Twitter
I AM grateful to Chris Kenny for fortifying my wish to have nothing to do with Twitter (“Insidious Twitter not always as it seems”, 9/8).
Exposure to examples through your columns and elsewhere shows what a menace it can be. It encourages obnoxious and inane abuse. Its sloganeering defies intellect and, used by so many politicians, probably explains today’s regrettable standards of debate and leadership. And, not least, its pernicious use by our terrorist enemies spreads hatred and bile.
John Kidd, Auchenflower, Qld
Two sides to APC matter
YOUR public criticism of the Australian Press Council is unfortunate. Even more so, because on the facts you’ve presented, it seems like it might be justified (“Press Council runs off the rails”, 9/8). It may not be possible within the legal or bureaucratic rules of the APC, but affording chairman Julian Disney as much space to reply as you’ve used in your editorial would seem a fair way to help resolve the Arthur Geitzelt issue.
Applying the light of day to deliberations made behind closed doors is often a powerful and beneficial function of newspapers. It’s been done only from your perspective so far. How about The Australian and the APC letting all of us have a look into both sides of the argument?
When it comes to intellectual honesty, The Australian, while far from perfect, does pretty well — arguably better than Fairfax. I say that because I’ve found it’s harder to get a letter published in Fairfax criticising its bias than a similar one in The Australian.
George Finlay, Balaclava, Vic
Christianity in denial
WHILE agreeing with John Bunyan’s general proposition that the Bible’s good bits outweigh the bad, I am afraid he is wishful in thinking that “hardly any” Christians and Jews take it as the literal word of God (Letters, 9/8).
Unfortunately, Protestant Christianity bases itself on sola scriptura that implies just that. Martin Luther believed non-believers would go to hell — and so do many Christians today. In fact Christianity in general grounds itself in his doctrine of sola fide (faith alone), which relegates the good deeds Bunyan speaks of, to a kind of optional extra. Luther’s idea of good deeds was expressing a violent hatred of Jews that many historians believe made anti-Semitism viral in Germany and culminated in the Holocaust.
Christianity is in deep denial about this, and many other such anomalies, and it should reprise its theology to accentuate the more humanistic values Bunyan and most of us cherish. Otherwise, if the West were to relapse into poverty, Christianity could easily find itself in much the same predicament as Islam today.
Tom Drake-Brockman, Berrilee, NSW
No comments:
Post a Comment