Letters to the editor

COLOMBIAN THANKS

The Colombian management and staff would like to deeply thank all of our lovely patrons who very kindly donated to the Queensland Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal at the Colombian Hotel on Friday, January 21 and Saturday, January 22.

Between both nights we managed to raise a grand total $6873.40 with all proceeds being directed to the Relief Appeal.

Thanks again.

— The Colombian Crew

NO TO SOCIALISM

I agree we should have the right to marry, however, we should be ashamed at ourselves for what we are willing to give up to achieve this.

Whenever gay marriage is debated we are told to vote Green which is an unashamedly socialist party.

I also believe in a democratically elected government. The ‘United Nations’ is an unelected world government by default. We are yet again told if we want gay marriage all we need to do is hand over more power to this unelected government.

I support gay marriage but without hesitation or compromise I will fight against socialism and unelected world governments.

— Adam

POLICE COMPLICIT

In New South Wales homosexual vilification is against the law.

It is against the law for speeches and statements made in public that vilify lesbians and gay men, abuse that happens in public that vilifies lesbians and gay men, statements or remarks in a newspaper or journal, in other publications, or on radio or television that vilify lesbians or gay men and gestures made in public that vilify lesbians or gay men.

Peter Madden of the Christian Democrat Party is allowed to vilify gay people in the press, on television, on video and allowed to arrange a public rally to further vilify gay people on the eve of the Mardi Gras parade.

The NSW Police Force are complicit in these actions by relocating the rally organised by Mr Madden from Hyde Park, for his own safety, to Martin Place.

Instead of protecting and encouraging these illegal acts should NSW Police be enforcing the law or does NSW now have a two-tiered law system, one for homophobes and one for the wider community?

Instead of enforcing the law NSW Police is protecting and encouraging the vilification of gay people by their actions. Does the Mardi Gras committee feel comfortable in allowing NSW Police permission to march in the Mardi Gras parade as being gay-friendly and protectors of our community on one end of town while they allow an anti-gay rally to be illegally held at the other end of town while taking no action?

— Ron

ALARMING TALK

After reading about Peter Madden of the Christian Democratic Party’s YouTube video in issue 1057 (and subsequently viewing said video), I was shocked and disturbed.

I find it amazing and the height of hypocrisy that Australia invades countries along with other warmongering nations and lectures their people about religious extremism and tolerance while under our very noses we have our own ‘Christian’ version of the Taliban spreading hatred and lies.

A lunatic fringe they may be, but we ignore this kind of fundamentalism at our peril. Talk of being ‘at war’ and ‘rising up’ is particularly alarming. Just how long will it be before one of these nutters acts out one of their so-called ‘spiritual battles’?

Let them raise an army of 10,000 ‘warriors’, I say. We’ll meet them with an army of 200,000+ made up of out and proud gays and lesbians along with their families and friends!

What part of ‘I don’t believe in your God and I don’t subscribe to your dogma’ don’t these people understand?

— David

QUESTIONS

I was concerned to read the report of the outcome of a murder trial in London in the internet news for January 27.

The report deals with the sentencing of Ruby Thomas, a drunken hoodlum who, with her gang, kicked an innocent man to death in 2009. She is a repeat offender, who spat at and threatened to stab a bus driver at age 15.

Her only reason for her vicious, savage and murderous attack was that her victim was holding hands with another man.

We read that “The next day, Thomas joked about the killing on Facebook.”

In spite of the judge’s comment that “This was a case of mindless drink-fuelled violence committed in public,” Thomas was sentenced to a mere two-and-a-half years in prison.

This raises two questions:

1. Since when has such a light sentence been considered appropriate for murder?

This is the latest in a series of controversial court cases.

Our legal system is one of the pillars of our whole social structure. If it is seen to be unfair or not credible, this opens the way to other drunken louts to behave in a similar way to Thomas, or worse.

2. The report was illustrated with glamour photos of Thomas.

What effect does this media think this creates on young, impressionable minds?

— Hugh