ENVIRONMENT IS EVERYTHING
TONY Abbott’s justification for the government’s pathetic 2030 greenhouse reduction target is that he doesn’t want to clobber the economy for the sake of the environment.
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Surely he doesn’t think our environment is a pretty landscape painting to be held at arm’s length. Our environment is the very basis of our health and well-being.
Climate change is not just a few more warm days. It is drowning cities, mega-fires, water scarcity, food shortages and mass civil unrest. To keep global warming under 1.5 degrees, we need a target that’s consistent with that of other countries (a reduction of at least 60 to 80 per cent on 2000 levels by 2030).
LIZETTE SALMON,
Wodonga
DEBATE MUST BE REASONED
I WOULD like to ask, to what extent is Father MacLeod-Miller really in favour of marriage equality? (The Border Mail, August 11).
Does he, for example, wish ministers of religion to face incarceration or pecuniary penalties if they fail to perform same-sex marriages? Or to have bakers, photographers and accommodation providers fined for conscientiously objecting to servicing same-sex weddings? This, and more, have occurred in jurisdictions which have recognised same-sex marriage.
To maintain a position in this debate of marriage equality would appear to be underdeveloped without considering these outcomes. In our free society, few things seem more jarring than the idea of state imposition of matters social and moral upon individuals. It begs the question – if Australia departs from conventional marriage, what will really change?
Of course, homophobia in all its forms should be resisted. Suicide and mental health in our community, stemming from whatever cause, is tragic. However, to say that proponents of traditional marriage are bigots or homophobic is an ostensibly deliberate conflation of two different things. There is no incongruency in maintaining marriage as it currently stands and taking a stand against homophobia. Since 2009, for example, all discrimination of same-sex couples was removed from Australian law. In essence, same-sex couples are now afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples.
A reasoned debate over a matter of a crucial public policy is a hallmark of a mature, civilised society. There is no homophobia in support for traditional marriage, and there should be no vilification of either side of this debate. It does, however, seem an unusual posturing adopted by Father MacLeod-Miller to preach tolerance and acceptance of same sex marriage, but not to afford the same to those in our community who have deep seated reservations about legalising it. Using the wedding photograph of Sophie Mirabella, the local who has given much in service to our region and nation, in the context used by Father MacLeod-Miller, does not appropriately contribute to a reasoned, respectful exchange on this question.
ADAM KOSTER,
Wodonga
SAME OLD FEAR AND PHOBIA
ALWAYS the same argument from anti-gays – although they say they are not they just don't believe the gay folk are entitled to the same rights as it is unnatural for man to love man and woman to love woman.
This is so phobic but like all phobic speech and behaviour they try to sell it as though they care. They do not care for the other persons beliefs and feelings.
They care only about their own agenda and maintaining the status quo and I am sure they believe their own safety.
But on the same page were lovely words to Father Peter MacLeod-Miller and to him I say thank you for seeing people as people, not as sinners and the sinless.
So sick of homophobia.
