The royal wedding: Love sermon delivers a welcome dose of truth

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The royal wedding: Love sermon delivers a welcome dose of truth

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The best thing about Meghan and Harry's wedding was the sermon on love delivered by Bishop Michael Curry. But despite Curry's eloquence, relevance and passion, the shallow commentators on Channel 9's coverage complained that he spoke for too long. Perhaps they thought it was a great pity that, after profiting from centuries of colonisation and slavery, the British aristocracy had to endure 15 minutes of truth. On the other hand they might have just been totally ignorant.

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Credit: Pat Campbell

Tony Kane, Maldon

Perfect day brings thoughts of past and future

What a mega-wedding. Hasn't Meghan got the best smile ever? And Harry's boyish charm is the yang to her yin. We at home, sans plastic tiara's, watched glued to the set remembering our own wedding day 40 years ago and as we watched, we wished them well as this very modern couple faces life together.

Brian Noble, Ferntree Gully

Distracted ABC fails to keep its eye on the royals

So despite not being a royalist, I decided to watch the wedding of Harry and Meghan.

I tuned in to the ABC coverage. What a shocker. They kept switching from covering the spectacle to street parties and interviews with kids, while sometimes the event unfolded on a tiny screen. The most bizarre was as the main royals arrived, they switched to etiquette lessons from June Dally-Watkins.

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Sorry, ABC, I just wanted to see a wedding, so I switched to Channel 9.

Julie Carrick, Leopold

Waste of money proved great advert for a republic

The best thing about the royal wedding is that it hardens my resolve for a republic. I cannot believe how much time, energy and money has been wasted on this spectacle and particularly in Australia.

Denise Stevens, Healesville

An antidote to today's harsh realities

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is surely mostly about Brand United Kingdom. While it might cost almost $60 million, this is peanuts when compared with its British national value. As for the rest of us, and as a republican, I have reluctantly come to believe that such an occasion has immense value as an antidote to the horrors and harshness of what passes for our daily "news" consumption.

I was reminded of this "reality" as I encountered an 88-year-old grandmother as she alighted from the tram. She informed me that she would be watching all of the royal wedding as she had "watched them all" since her husband had passed away 50 years ago. "Just like Queen Victoria and Prince Alfred," I quipped as she crossed the road.

David Jewell, Surrey Hills

Don't overlook the ceremony's sacred significance

The glamour of the latest royal wedding was widely watched and enjoyed this weekend, and Prince Harry and his bride are a markedly handsome couple. We do well to wish them and the monarchy happiness and success.

However, the most important part of the ceremony is not its worldly beauty, but its sacred significance. Our monarchy abides by the tradition of all great human cultures that just and equitable rule depends upon adherence to spiritual truths. A people without sacred ties to eternity is a people adrift. It will be interesting to see how effectively the new royal couple live up to this indispensable ideal.

Nigel Jackson, Belgrave

Regal wear feels the pinch

Loved the Queen's outfit, but judging from her expression, it seemed as if her (new?) shoes were pinching a bit.

Barbara Abell, Ringwood North

FORUM

The PC award goes to ...

Matt Holden ("Liberals can't even talk about women", Comment, 18/5) must be seeking an award for extreme political correctness with his criticism of my use of the word "female".

He impugns the word "female" as a pejorative when contrasted alongside the word "blokes". Imagine the outrage among the almond-latte-sipping cultural class if I had used the "blokes" equivalent – perhaps "sheilas", "chicks", or even "ladies".

He also ignores the fact that my response was to the ABC interviewer asking about the "number of female Liberals".

For the record and interest of those far less selective than Mr Holden, I will continue to encourage more Liberal women, females, ladies, chicks or sheilas to join exceptional Liberal leaders like Julie Bishop and Marise Payne, who have broken the male or blokes-only glass ceiling in portfolios like foreign affairs and defence, in our parliamentary ranks.

Simon Birmingham, Parliament House, Canberra

Well said, Tony Wright

Congratulations to Tony Wright for his deeply personal and pithy article regarding his brother, Tim, and the parlous stage of technical education in Victoria ("The schools that saved kids and built a nation", 19/05/). As a veteran of more than 40 years' teaching in the Victorian secondary system, my experience supports his views 100per cent.

The demise of real technical schools, corporatisation of the TAFE system and the entry of private providers has delivered a very poor outcome for both students and the nation.

Our educational "leaders" need to get in touch with the real world in the same manner that great technical teachers used to – maybe then they will understand.

Stuart James, Leneva

Ignorance on display

Adding to Tony Wright's thoughts, by "basket weaving" does Simon Birmingham mean that which is a living tradition in the context of the UNESCO convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage?

Does he mean the ancient craft practised and revered around the world in countries as diverse as Norway, Japan, Botswana, England and India to name but a few? Perhaps he was referring to Indigenous basket weaving as celebrated in the installation PET Lamp Reimagining: Bukmukgu Guyananhawuy at the recent NGV Triennial exhibition. I could go on.

The point is that in seeking to disparage TAFE , and by implication basket weaving, our federal Minister for Education is revealing an ignorance and propensity for throwaway lines that is of concern in one charged with a role that requires broad knowledge, measured thinking and, dare I say, wisdom.

Barbara Olanda, Essendon

A revealing, sad response ...

Such a sad statement from a surviving student of the latest school shooting in Sante Fe in the US. "It's been happening everywhere. I've always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here,too. I wasn't surprised, I was just scared."

Students should not have to live with that constant fear.

Susan Munday, Bentleigh East

... and nothing changes

As someone said: "Violence is as American as apple pie" yet another US school massacre, the well-practised ritual of Trump administration grieving, lowering the flag, hand-over-heart prayer.

Nothing ever changes, more schoolchildren have been gunned down this year than those US service personal on active service.

In spite of this ongoing attack on its own young, gun ownership restrictions remain a sea of government inaction.

Songwriter Pete Seeger's 1960's haunting line "When will they ever learn" is even more relevant today as when it was first written

Rex Condon, Ashwood

An exercise in frustration

After spending half a day setting up an account on the myGov website then a Medicare account, I was dismayed to find that Medicare would only accept one of my item's numbers. After completing the online form I was then told to then attach copies of the invoices I was claiming.

Honestly, do they make it so difficult to make a claim online that hopefully we will just give it away and not worry.

The alternative is to sit in a queue at Centrelink for hours and claim in person, fill out reams of paperwork and post it off hoping it will actually arrive somewhere. Trying to call the "help" number five times and being told by a robot that they are busy and I/we must call back was an absolutely useless exercise.

Why have an online system that is of limited use and a frustration any anyone trying to use it? I guess I answered my question above.

Joan Goldinger , Maidstone

Progressing to regression

The flatter tax system proposed by the federal government would make our tax system less progressive. Underlying a progressive tax is the ability to pay. Poor families spend a larger share of their income on the cost of living. They need all the money they earn to afford basics like shelter, food, and transportation. A tax decreases their ability to afford a decent standard of living.

Consider two people with the same cost of living of say $40,000 per year. The first earns $87,000, pays around $20,000 in tax, leaving around $27,000 in disposable income after cost of living payments. The second earns $174,000, pays around $52,000 in tax, leaving around $82,000 in disposable income. So while the second person earns twice as much as the first, and pays 2 times in tax, their disposable income is three times as high. And 37 times higher than a person earning $50,000 a year with the same cost of living. It is this higher disposable income that provides an increased ability for those earning higher incomes to pay an increasing share of total tax and on which a progressive tax system needs to be based. To do otherwise results in increased social inequality.

Robert Campbell, Brighton East

The measure of success

Congratulations to Sally Capp on her election as lord mayor. It's great that addressing the homeless issue is high on her priorities.

Let this be a KPI for her time at the helm. The city can't be expected to tackle this issue on its own, however, and hopefully she can convince the Victorian government to contribute substantially more funding and ideas than it is showing with its current public housing strategy. A Labor government should be throwing the kitchen sink at a better outcome for the homeless and needy.

Ms Capp's plan for a $250 million elevated walking path along the Yarra can wait ("Capp is Melbourne's lord mayor", The Age, 19/5). The New York High Line model was, I believe, a cost-effective refurb of an existing disused elevated train track, not the costly construction of brand-new infrastructure she proposes ($100 million per kilometre).

It's already an easy and interesting walk from Federation Square to Docklands beside the Yarra or any of the east/west streets and lanes or a free tram ride down Collins Street. Put the $250 million to better use.

Peter Thomson, Brunswick

Fire is a tragic loss

The devastation of the La Mama Theatre is a tragic loss to Melbourne's performance life.

Its rich history of great plays and now-famous players should not be allowed to die.

Let's hope that governments both state and federal, the Melbourne City Council and generous donors have the building back in action within a year so that a new era of theatrical excellence can begin.

Graeme Lee, Fitzroy

Think before you comment

I recently watched an old Carol Burnett Show (1967-1977) Star Trek parody about what happens to the mostly male crew members after flying through an "oestrogen cloud'. It is funny and lovely in its take on how the "feminisation of men" might make the world a fairer and less aggressive and warlike place. The ending of course is interesting, funny and depressing.

I do understand the complexity of this old yet contemporary discussion. I didn't watch the royal wedding but ended up looking on-line at "The Gown" and the outfits other attendees were wearing. Along with this were the various comments posted by us women on these outfits and the wearer.

Unfortunately I overhear these same conversations in cafes, supermarket queues etc. regularly as well. The viciousness and nastiness of these comments shock me and it makes me think that really we are our own worst enemies.

At the risk of sermonising, next time you are tempted to comment on what another woman is wearing – don't. Talk about clothes by all means, but skip the comments on how that person looks on the day regardless of what you think. For women, compliments on how they look are loaded regardless of intention.

I never thought I'd say this but in this matter, let's be more like men – who don't, on meeting up say, "You look nice today. Love your outfit". Let's refrain from later commenting to others about "Who's putting on weight on and ... that outfit"!

Lindy Harris Wandin North

The mind boggles

Visiting atheist Richard Dawkins told 3AW's Tom Elliott last Friday that all religious believers are under-educated and ignorant people whose ill-informed world view is "impoverished", and whose foolish and nonsensical beliefs are a virus that needs to be cured by further education.

As a Christian, I'm wondering if I'm obliged to respect Dawkins' views as much as he respects mine. And not just my views, but those of scores of scientists of faith, including Bacon, Kepler, Pascal, Boyle, Ampere, Collins, McGrath, and cochlear implant inventor Professor Graeme Clark. One can only wonder what these great men of science might have achieved, if only they had not been impoverished by ill-informed ignorance.

Rowan Forster, Surrey Hills

Doing it forever

New facial recognition technology to enable teachers to detect misbehaving or inattentive students (Odd Spot, 18/5). How incredibly handy, but isn't this what good teachers have been doing since time immemorial?

Linda Fisher, Malvern East

AND ANOTHER THING

It starts later now

So, the Australian Federal Police will be able to ask anyone for their ID and eject them from the airport. Remember when the holiday started at the airport?

Gerald Bleasdale, Kyabram

The property ladder

A lobbyist for property developers as new lord mayor for Melbourne ... who would have thought?

Craig Cahill, Blessington

Let Festival Hall go

I've seen some idiocy about preserving rundown, useless, nondescript buildings in my time, but heritage protection for Festival Hall takes the cake.

Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills

Visiting rights

Lobbyists can visit MPs while unions can be refused admission to workplaces.

Malcolm McDonald, Burwood

Any way you cut it ...

No matter how you play the percentages, the ScoMo tax plan – dissected by Ross Gittens (19/5) – is regressive and against our egalitarian ethos

Greg Curtin, Blackburn South

The US ties that bind

Republicans rue Australia's ties to the Crown. But that's nothing to Australia being truly infantilised by tying ourselves to the US, come hell or high water.

Margaret Callinan, Balwyn

Furthermore

Maybe spectators learn that abuse is effective when they see sporting heroes sledge one another or Israel Folau repeatedly denigrating gay people ("Spectator abuse a stubborn sporting stain", The Age, 19/5).

Walter Lee, Ashfield NSW

Finally

Was Meghan Markle's mother asked to walk her daughter down the aisle?

Joan Segrave, Healesville

Now every girl can dream of becoming a princess. Unfortunately, there are just not enough princes.

Tony O'Brien, South Melbourne

What sort of idiot organises a wedding that clashes with a Collingwood game?

Phil Bodel, Ocean Grove

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