Letter to the Editor
Wellington LIVE – One Network

Dear Editor,

Hey Wellington; as well as being a bit hard on ourselves lately, we’ve also been more than a bit forgetful.

We’ve unremembered some of the wonderful free things we have, but precisely because they are free , we take them for granted.

Here is a broad reminder of what we might be most grateful for.

– Being free to walk around, right on the water’s edge of our waterfront, one of the world’s great natural harbours
– Being free to enjoy forms of bush/environments 10 minutes walk from most people’s homes
– Being able to enjoy, freely, the 2nd cleanest air in the world (https://www.nzedge.com/news/wellington-ranked-2-list-cleanest-capital-cities/)
– Wonderful, free, views
– Arts, culture, foods, music…much of which is free
– A reasonably good public transport system
– Freedom to express our points of view

Most important of all we have the freedom to live.

There’s nobody shooting at us. Aside from the headline acts of Ukraine/Russia and Palestine/Israel, there’s another 57 ‘state’ conflicts, as well as 75 non-state conflicts taking place around the world…now. (https://www.uu.se/en/press/press-releases/2024/2024-06-03-ucdp-record-number-of-armed-conflicts-in-the-world)

Imagine being in any of those situations…and think about what we have (and haven’t actually) got to complain about!

Peter Kerr