Can-do attitude
Such a long letter last week about how a 20 cent can deposit will wreck old people’s budget. I agree that 20 cents is a huge amount. Most people who drink a can a day cannot possibly afford 20 cents more, even if it is returnable.
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So I’d like to suggest ways that oldies like me can afford to maintain our consumption of sugar-loaded tooth-rotter.
When the kid next door has mowed your lawn, don’t give him money, give him 100 cans ($20). When the church collection plate comes round on Sunday, drop 50 cans ($10) on it. When you put $50 of petrol in your car, pay with 250 cans.
When your hugely inflated electricity bill arrives, hire a truck to deliver thousands of cans to Origin. Or leave them in a pile for young entrepreneurs to collect and earn some pocket money.
I’m lucky: I’m only 76, not yet so old and doddery that I cannot lift a few empty cans one at a time and push each into the slot of a reverse vending machine.
David O’Connor, Eden
OzHarvest can drive
On behalf of OzHarvest Sapphire Coast I would like to publicly thank Jess Ryan and the Sapphire Coast Turf Club for organising a food collection as part of their Christmas in July/Eden Cup events.
Over 110kg of delicious food was donated at the 17 collection points in Eden, Pambula, Merimbula and Bega.
Food donated included toiletries, rice, cereal, tea, coffee, jams, desserts, baked beans, tinned vegetables and fruit, tinned soups, tuna, noodles and pasta sauces.
The generosity of donors, of businesses willing to be collection points, and of the Sapphire Coast Turf Club will make a difference to many people in the Bega Valley.
We will be delivering this food to a number of charities, including the Salvation Army, Women’s Refuge, and the St George Uniting Church Eden who will give this food to people in need.
Donating a can of food or two might seem like a small thing for one person to do, but multiply that donation by many people taking part and you have a “can do” movement, helping people in need.
Once again, thank you to the Sapphire Coast Turf Club, Sprout Eden, e2biPhonerepairs, Eden IGA, Pambula Post Office, Bendigo Bank Pambula Branch, Merimbula News Weekly, Merimbula Health and Fitness, Merimbula NAB, Goodyear Tyres Merimbula, Tathra Beachside, Bega PowerFM office, Bega Coles and most importantly, the donors.
If any of your readers would like to organise a can/non perishable food drive for OzHarvest Sapphire Coast, please feel free to call me on 0438 407 364.
Christine Welsh, OzHarvest Sapphire Coast
Postal poll divisive
What are the Liberals doing with their postal vote? Have they forgotten the fundamentals of a free society?
In a free country like Australia, we make laws to protect the vulnerable and we make decisions about who is vulnerable (age, power relationships, etc). Why would any rational person who believes in freedom want to make laws to restrict what capable people in mutually respectful relationships can do or restrict the status of their relationships?
The only possibly vulnerable people involved in same-sex marriage are the children and it has been shown in studies and anecdotally that children of same-sex couples are no more vulnerable than those of other couples.
Everyone in a free society like Australia is entitled to express their opinions (within the limits of inciting violence), but there is a big difference between expressing your opinion and voting on whether other peoples' rights should be restricted.
What could be more divisive in a society such as ours to require everyone to have a say on the status of the relationships of a specified minority?
