I WOULD like to thank Ed Merrison for his commendable article on the plight of the families having their means of transport to Monkami in Croydon for their Down Syndrome dependants stopped.
I have known Mr and Mrs Cooper in particular for at least 30 years and they are a hard-working family.
In past years they could have had their daughter placed into an institution, but they decided to care for her themselves. This would have saved the Government thousands of dollars over time.
They have never gone begging for handouts from any institution, government or charitable organisations; they have always paid their way.
I believe the families involved have even offered to subsidies the cost of transportation out of their own pocket to help the cash-strapped authorities.
Since this decision to stop the transport service the daughter of Mr and Mrs Cooper is recovering from a severe bout of shingles, which could be due to the stress this has caused.
She believes that it is her fault that this has happened and they feel they have done something wrong.
Ken Shipton
Croydon North
Sign of the times?
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges never ceases to amaze me with its incompetence.
We have totally given up complaining about the same roaming dogs in our street, but this takes the cake.
We live on the corner of two streets. Vandals stole the street sign and nobody knows where it starts or ends. Our mail goes everywhere but to our house and we get other people’s mail.
My wife rang the shire and the person in charge said he would not be replacing it due to cost. Give me a break! Send the sign to me and I’ll put it up, no charge. Please tell me why I pay rates.
Would anyone from the shire wish to comment? Of course not. That takes time, like anything else they do.
G. Aarons
Launching Place
Get a hobby
THOSE opponents of the supermarket in Yarra Glen are at it again!
I don’t know any of them personally because all the people I talk to are all in favour of building the new complex and landscape.
Their spokesperson, according to one newspaper report, is eloquent but not strong on mathematics.
She claims that most (all of 174 persons) are against the supermarket.
Now, I believe there are a little over 3000 people living in Yarra Glen, 174 out of 3000 is not most, but only 5.08 per cent.
That is only a few! Please stop making up numbers, stop living in the past and get on with it.
Most of the protestors will, in a few years from now, be in nursing homes or at the pearly gates.
The future of Yarra Glen is for the young people, with families, looking for jobs locally. Have you heard of pollution?
That is what happens when the young people of Yarra Glen have to drive to Healesville or Lilydale or even further in their cars to find work or go to work.
So it will be out of character?
Where were these protests when this “shoebox” extension was built on top of the accountants office?
That is out of character!
And where were the protests about those two new concrete shops at present being built out of character?
It seems to me that these people are selective about what or who they protest against.
To my mind you have wasted enough time and money, because every time you cause a delay, it costs money, council money/time, developers money/time.
Please get a hobby (or is this it)? If so, I feel sorry for you!
T Quinte
Yarra Glen
Bravo youth
I WRITE to express my appreciation to the Shire of Yarra Ranges for organising the Bravado Youth Film Festival.
After attending the first screening at Readings Cinemas in Chirnside Park I was impressed with the quality and originality displayed in the films submitted by the local young people.
Such an event was a great way of motivating young people to get into film making, and it was wonderful that the Shire of Yarra Ranges would support our youth in this way.
Jessee Roberts and everyone at the Shire of Yarra Ranges Youth Services Department should be congratulated on producing such a wonderful event.
The night was a big success with a huge audience packing the cinema and enjoying an evening of quality films. I wish them the best of luck with other screenings around the shire.
Stephen Connell
Gladysdale
Fair go
IRRESPECTIVE of David Hicks’ original intentions, the fact that he was detained by the US on foreign soil when doing nothing declared illegal by anyone at the time was immoral enough.
That he was then transported to a specially established jail on the other side of the world and submitted to the harshest of privations, remaining there today, accused of no crime, with no end to his bizarre plight in sight, is horrifically Kafkaesque in the extreme.
And that his own country, Australia, has shown meek complicity in all of this throughout is utterly shameful.
September 11 without a doubt instilled a new type of fear into all of western civilisation. But for Australia to be cowed by this into becoming bitter, mistrustful, accusatory, suspicious, vindictive…is actually conceding victory to extremists who wish to change our way of living.
I appeal to our local MP Fran Bailey to petition her government to help bring back the open, friendly, tolerant, welcoming Australia that I was proud to live in, to bring back David Hicks and give him an Aussie fair go.
David Johnston
Healesville
Insulted
ON FRIDAY 1 December I was assaulted in front of the service counter of Coles in Healesville.
After having waited over 15 minutes to be served, the customer behind me verbally abused me as if I was the cause of our long wait and then shoved me in the chest as he walked past.
I tried to speak with the manager of Coles, who refused to provide his surname and who dismissed my complaint by handing me a customer feed-back form and walking off.
I feel extremely insulted and degraded by this treatment.
Coles’ refusal to hire enough staff has turned their express lane into a customer parking lot.
If you are in a hurry, or old and tired, or sick and in pain, bad luck! Coles does not seem to care.
J. J. Cooper
Silvan
No joy for piglets
CHRISTMAS is the saddest time of the year; Sad, because behind the facade of peace and goodwill there is more cruelty to animals at this time of the year than at any other.
In the months preceding Christmas, millions of innocent animals are forced to endure extreme suffering and misery.
While humans are happily buying gifts and planning social events, turkeys, piglets and various other animals are being subjected to severe deprivation and pain simply to gratify the taste buds.
In dimly lit, stinking, crowded factory farms turkeys are suffering from hock and breast burn and having difficulty breathing in the dust and ammonia laden air.
Piglets, who have been agonisingly castrated and tail-docked chew the metal bars in their barren pens. Clearly, when we buy the bodies of these tortured animals we are supporting this cruelty and ensuring its continuation.
How can Christians who follow Jesus show such a lack of mercy to God’s gentle creatures?
How can those who share their homes with dogs and cats show such indifference to the suffering of equally sensitive creatures for nothing more than taste sensation?
A wealth of delicious non-animal foods are readily available. Please have a heart and make this Christmas truly a time of peace and goodwill.
Jenny Moxham
Monbulk
