For 10 minutes this person was in the faces of the officers, swearing at them and using threatening actions. The abuse these officers received was the foulest you could imagine and yet, throughout it all, the officers remained patient, calm and polite.

I don't know how they stayed so composed with this person. If it was me, that person would have been handcuffed and thrown in jail. Who would want their job? They are there to protect us all and are treated like the enemy. They really are a special breed of people.

After reading the article in The Border Mail recently regarding the abortion clinic, I think a recommendation that patients should be able to drive into the back of the clinic is a sensible one, as I imagine the protesters would not be allowed on private property. As the clinic has not already suggested this, perhaps the parking area at the back is too small? If not, it should be considered.

An alternative would be for the clinic to go somewhere like the Gardens Medical Centre where the protesters would have no idea as to whom was going there for an abortion.

Personally, I do not think Council should  be meddling in people's personal lives such as abortion and same-sex marriage.As they said a year or two ago when approached about the clinic, it is not part of their job.

Finally, I wonder what the protesters would do if someone was on their doorstep every day, harrassing them?They should ask themselves that question. I am not pro-abortion but I do believe in the rights of a woman to have one if necessary.

Australia no longer dreams of a black and white Christmas just like the ones we used to know. The retro Christmas experience of waiting for a seasonal message from a palace or cathedral has gone out with devils on horseback, beehive hairdos and Santa snow as people rediscover the spirt of the season in local realities.

“Good news for all people” – a traditional stock item that has been abandoned by organisations opposing equality – has been taken up with enthusiasm in local communities committed to compassion and accepting people just as they are and the Christmas message needs to be heard rather than delivered by most religious organisations.

The Christmas message is really best understood by outsiders but religious institutions have stuffed and trussed it as like farmed festive fowl and turned it into a story for insiders destined to be discarded with the brussel sprouts on the side of the plate because ultimately it’s been hijacked and turned into a message of control rather than freedom but the postal vote ,royal commissions and other realities have set it free.

Social and even religious refugees can connect with the simple story released from its gothic wrappings and see ourselves as part of a community story of hope.

Christmas is full of surprises that give us gifts we actually needed that don’t have a use-by date, expanding perspectives and re-booting personal navigation systems.