We deserve answers
HOW absolutely spot on were the words to Wagga councillors by Graham Gorrel in his DA column of March 3.
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“For a start, in Wagga, why couldn’t council have found a qualified engineer within its own ranks (or one within the city) to come up with a parking plan that didn’t cost $250,000?”
Please councillors, answer the above question honestly and frankly by making a public statement and be answerable to us, the ratepayers of Wagga.
Or is the ratepayer money such an easy commodity to come by that the expenditure of $250,000 is considered to be neither here nor there?
We await your response.
Paul Bosman
Estella
History’s smokescreen
MY DAD recently died, 62 years old, in his bed on Christmas Eve.
Ironically though – he had emphysema and possible lung cancer – it was a heart attack and 37 degree heat with a broken air conditioner that killed him.
Dad had smoked since he was 14.
My dad was born in 1954, the year the Journal of the American Medical Association editorial said the use of physicians for smoking advertising was a “medically unethical use of the prestige and reputation of the American Medical Association.”
Until this time, physicians were used to discount any “theories” that smoking was detrimental, like the 1946 campaign: “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”
In the 1930s and 1940s, the majority of physicians smoked.
In 1954, nearly 52 per cent of physicians reported being regular smokers (over 30 per cent reported smoking at least a pack per day).
Though the health effects of smoking were becoming well known to physicians in the 50s and 60s, the cool kids of popular culture continued to light up the screen, much as they still do now.
With Marlon Brando (1951), James Dean (1955), Audrey Hepburn (1961) and Clint Eastwood (1966) paving the way for my dad to start smoking when he was 14.
The addition of filters to smokes attempted to discount the health issues. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine when inhaled or injected.
Initially it increases the levels of dopamine (makes us feel happy) and epinephrine/adrenaline (alertness, focused, and energised), enhancing mood, fine motor skills, attention, and memory.
After a few cigarettes, these positive effects are lost and attempts to recapture it lead to nicotine addiction. Now, any positive effects of smoking are provision of relief from the negative feelings associated with nicotine cravings.
Nicotine dependence involves both psychological and physical dependence, with side effects of quitting smoking including emotional and physical symptoms that can persist for several weeks.
The message is simple – just quit.
Heather Main
Wagga
Preying on the vulnerable
THE weekend is sacred. Of all the days of the week that I don't want to work, it is Saturday and Sunday.
With the cuts to penalty rates, I won't have any incentive at all.
Imagine giving up your Sunday from 9 to 5 for an insignificant $136. It's not just the Sunday I'm giving up either. It's the Saturday night too.
How am I supposed to spend money out at a bar and be in bed by 10pm for work the next day?
We are backed into a corner; there are so few jobs with youth unemployment at 12.2 per cent. We are desperate for money and will take anything, but not this!