Prioritizing Trees Over Lives
I have lived 90 metres from the Remembrance Drive, Weighbridge/Madden Roads intersection for twenty years and I am concerned about the prioritizing of the integrity of the Avenue of Honour over human lives. I traverse this intersection at least twice a day. The Ballarat City Council has allowed housing development and traffic to increase and now the road is a route to the saleyards. People have died in crashes here. A roundabout with a much lower speed limit and rumble strips on Weighbridge Road would be the best solution.
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Do we really intend to continue prioritizing the lives of trees and what they stand for, over the lives of humans?
Suzanne Dooley, Cardigan Village.
The Pittsburgh Massacre
On arriving at Ballarat's synagogue 28 October, after first visiting Ballarat's Islamic mosque, 50 or so participants in an interfaith Friendship Walk were deeply saddened to hear breaking news from the visibly shaken host speaker, Mark Schatz, of the massacre of 11 Jewish worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
This terrible news of the devastating impact that hate and intolerance has had on this peaceable Jewish community in Pittsburgh underscored at yesterday's interfaith event just how important it is for us in Australia, Victoria and Ballarat to actively continue cultivating bonds of friendship, respect and tolerance between people of different beliefs.
As published in a statement by the executive leaders of the Parliament of the World's Religions, "This crime delivers a message of hate that is aimed at a whole people, their culture, and their freedom to assemble without fear of harm to practice their beliefs in the sanctity of their own house of worship."
We must ensure as citizens in this country of Australia that everything is done to protect and respect freedom of worship, freedom of religion where that religion is conducted peaceably, and contributes to the well-being of society in general.
The Friendship Walk, organised by Ballarat Interfaith Network in partnership with JCMA (Jewish, Christian, Muslim Association of Australia) was an event aiming to draw people of different faiths, or no faith at all, together in friendship and acceptance. Concluding the walk, after visiting the mosque, where Ruth Fenton explained her Muslim faith's true regard for the status of women, and then the synagogue, everyone enjoyed an address on the significance of traditional Christian icons in the Greek Orthodox Church and the hospitality of the Hellenic Orthodox Community in Humffray St Nth.
May Ballarat continue to truly uphold our city council's commitment to fostering intercultural and interfaith harmony.
Margaret Lenan Ellis, Chair, Ballarat Interfaith Network