Tattered flag an insult
I commend Richard Salcole on his observation of the offensive condition of the Australian Flag "flying" above the front of the old Thomas Jewellers building in Baylis Street. I also noticed it yesterday morning whilst waiting for a shop to open at 8.50am.
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You would think the real estate agent would have the decency to remove it in an attempt to sell their product. Richard, I too am a veteran and appreciate your observance.
Tony Thompson, Wagga
Not the voice of the people
Your correspondent, Yvonne Rance (January 9) claims that there is no mention of “the return to our constitutional right to free speech.” As far as our constitution is worded, there is no specific right to freedom of speech. She also claims that the minority in our community are favoured over the so–called silent majority. Does she realise that she may be part of the minority who exercise their freedom to speak?
She appears to be at odds with all of the surveys that indicate that the majority of Australians accept the science of climate change and believe that something must be done to protect the environment here and worldwide. She claims to speak for the people but gives no evidence as to her sources of information to justify her claims.
Mary Kidson, Wagga
Not quite right
I am always delighted to see the name of Yvonne Rance among those of this newspaper's correspondents. Ms Rance writes entertainingly over a wide range of subjects, and she is always confident and informative about what "the people" are thinking, much of which - although I believe I am one of the people - is strange and new to me.
However, Ms Rance refers in her recent letter (January 9) to the removal of the people's "constitutional right of freedom of speech", despite the Australian Constitution never having granted such a thing. Instead, Australians have High Court rulings protecting our freedom to, amongst other things, express our political views in a newspaper. This is something Ms Rance, despite feeling silenced, frequently enjoys doing. Possibly she is thinking of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, a common error amongst even the most patriotic of Australians. I note that her letter's entertainment value, despite this small blemish, remains unaffected.
Peter Casey, Wagga
New name for university
When it comes to the name of our regional university, I'm one of those who hope that tradition wins out over the modern fetish for "re-branding" - a term that used to be reserved for the criminal forging of ownership by cattle duffers.
But if we are to suffer at the whimsy of bureaucratic boffins, they should look no further than "Farrer University" as a new handle for the old pot. Farrer wasn't an explorer, so his name won't offend anyone; and he was a pioneer of agriculture, which reflects the rural aspects of the university's several locations.
Best of all, when reduced to its two letter acronym, the name concisely sums up the contempt held by pony-tailed marketing gurus for the other 99 per cent of us who actually have a fondness for keeping tradition alive.