End the violence
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
I was at our recent anti-domestic violence seminar, listening to why it is not OK, what are we going to do to put an end to it, how we can help people who are in it and why people stay in these relationships e.g. they think they deserve it because of their actions, what they have said or done etc.
Then we had a break for morning tea, and a friend I was sitting with asked me how I was going because I had told them of an incident that happened downtown recently. Someone came up to me while I was talking with a friend and made a sarcastic comment about my appearance, then proceeded to patronise me and then left.
My friend (at the seminar) said “It is so wrong that you have to put up with this. You don’t deserve it”. They then went on to say, “I guess if you are a councillor you expect it. It comes with the job”.
This made me feel sad. No one deserves it. This is the same thought pattern as the people who stay in unhealthy relationships. They think its OK, because they must have done something to deserve it. It’s not OK. This is wrong thinking. Here I am, sitting in an anti-domestic violence seminar where we have just been told it is not OK to belittle people, to abuse people, to criticise people, to beat people up etc.
So how do we put an end to domestic violence and abuse in our community if we think it is OK to belittle, criticise and make personal insults on our leaders, council staff and their partners? How can we stop any kind of violence and abuse if this is seen to be OK? It is not OK, not at any level.
That night at the anti-domestic violence dinner we had two amazing speakers, Robyn Moore (inspiring motivational speaker) and Greg Strong (Aboriginal Health Worker working for Healthwise). They were brilliant. Greg Strong said something in his speech that really hit a cord with me. He said “People will protest and do whatever it takes to save a tree, but a woman can be bashed within an inch of her life and people do nothing!” How sad is that?
I want to thank Pam MacLeay and the Country Women’s Association and everyone involved in putting this seminar and dinner together to bring it to our attention.
Now it is time to take action. We need to help these people, both the victims and the offenders. We cannot stop domestic violence without helping both sides. People are hurting and it’s not OK. Bad things happen when good people do nothing.
So to everyone in the Inverell Shire, what can we do to help these people, and put an end to domestic violence here?
What are your thoughts?
Anna Harmon
Inverell
Hunter responds
Imagine this: You’ve worked for a living, paid your taxes, raised your children to be productive members of the community. Then one day you open the local paper to find yourself asked, because you are a firearms owner, “Who or what do you intend to kill, and why?” Sheltering under the nationwide respect for the victims of the Port Arthur tragedy, The Inverell Times apparently believes it has seized the high ground from which it can attack us. But then, I guess, firearms owners and shooters are one of the last groups of people who can be openly abused and vilified. This is regardless of the fact that firearms owners are the most thoroughly scrutinized and safest members of the community.
In his statement, Robert Brown wrote of the tragedy of those murdered at Port Arthur and of the loss for all of Australia because of this crime. The Inverell Times wilfully ignored this part of his statement and accused him of claiming that the “real” victims were shooters. This was neither said nor implied by Brown.
The press and The Inverell Times tend to omit vital information when engaging in “the gun debate”.
The fact that the recent violent attacks and terrorist attacks in Australia were perpetrated with unregistered, illegal firearms does not get a mention. The fact that the weapon that Martin Bryant used had previously been handed into the Victorian Police in an amnesty is ignored. The absence of a coronial inquest into this tragedy has never been adequately explained, and the press lets this question go unanswered. My family are hunters. We hunt game animals in season for our table. It is something we have done for generations and it is part of our culture, and the culture of Western Civilisation. We are also primary producers.
The Inverell Times has apparently forgotten that this community is founded on primary production, with livestock bred and raised for food production, with crops sown that need protection from problem animals.
So, what of the question that firearms owners have been asked by the Times? Does it deserve an answer? It is an act of moral vanity to imply that ordinary, law abiding members of the community are intending to commit murder because they own firearms. It is also written proof of Robert Brown’s statement, that the Port Arthur tragedy, “has been used to stigmatise farmers, hunters and shooters ever since.”
Last week our Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said, “I’m a primary producer and have a firearms licence…responsible gun use and gun ownership is a critical element…it is a critical part of our safety.” Did the Inverell Times send the Prime Minister a complimentary copy of last Friday’s paper, so that he too could be asked, “Who or what do you intend to kill?”
Christine Hall
Inverell
Argument a travesty
I have lived happily in Inverell for 49 years, secure in the knowledge that we have an intelligent and well informed press to inform and (maybe) guide us.
Now that is no longer the case.
The editorial piece which appeared in the Inverell Times on Friday, April 29 was a travesty. A minor point was the deliberate misinterpretation of the comments by Robert Brown MLC.
We get to the realms of “flat-out-lunacy” - your phrase Mr Editor with the assertion that any actual or intending gun owner is going to kill someone or something.
Don’t you read your own newspaper? The sporting results give equal footing to Shooting as to swimming, bridge, golf and bowls. We are outshone by football and cricket but who cares. We are legitimate, and strongly resent your insults. It’s really not a good look - an editor ranting on about something he knows nothing about.
There are four days each week – Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday when you could join the most law- abiding citizens of this town in their chosen sport and see what “makes them tick”.
You would be most welcome, but then – you’ve closed your mind haven’t you.
Dr Peter J. Hobson
Inverell
Degree of discipline
I write with reference to the opinion piece “Gun debate 20 years after Port Arthur”. In this, the author asserted that it is fact that “aiming a gun is only ever done with one intent, and for one inevitable outcome: kill or irrevocably dismantle” and further that “the only logical question of gun ownership” is “who or what do you intend to kill, and why?”. As with most Friday issues of the Inverell Times, I only had to skip a few pages forward to the “Scoreboard” section to find results the of Inverell RSM Civilian Rifle Club’s weekly shoot. Certain Times staff must be positively apoplectic at the thought that the weeks winner in the “F Open” class scoring 55.0 and 58.4 killed something or someone a total of 113.4 times! To allay the fears of the author, I would like to point out that the only victim at a weekly shoot of the Civilian Rifle Club is cardboard and the occasional piece of paper.
At the conclusion of the weekly shoot, the target may have a few holes in it, but it is no deader than it was at the start of the day. Target shooting is conducted on gazetted ranges, where a high degree of discipline is mandatory and safety is paramount. Various disciplines are also Olympic sports.
The author quite rightly stated that both sides of the gun control debate believe the other side is misguided at best, and delusional at worst, however to state that the only reason a firearm trigger is pulled is to “kill or irrevocably dismantle”, when every week for many years the results of a target shooting event are published in their paper indicates certain Times staff are either ignorant of the content of their own paper, or perhaps (dare I say) are “misguided or delusional” themselves.
Gun control is a serious issue that deserves a level headed, fact-based debate. Ill-informed, emotion-driven assertions and arguments have no place at the table of a mature discussion on any topic.
Alex Eddy
Inverell