Where Sir Edmund Hillary conquered the heights of Mount Everest and Sir Ernest Rutherford split the atom; where Sir Peter Snell ran faster than anyone else and where Sir Peter Jackson went from “Bad Taste” to “Lord of the Rings,” there is that spirit that seeks adventure and to hell with the consequences.
I am not great like some of the amazing New Zealanders mentioned above, but I have had the opportunity to read, write, listen, speak and see what has happened before. I have learned through experience, both good and bad.
If our government censors our ability to act and react in the today, how can we possibly become fully developed people?
Ardern seems to feel that we as a people are too irresponsible and na?ve to make decisions without her help. She wants to keep passing laws to keep us safe.
Apparently, we are too childlike to decide what we can read, see or form an opinion on so it is best that she just censors things and bans things and protects us from ourselves.
Well, I am nearly 64 years old. I don’t need some whippersnapper 38-year old telling me what to think or how to think. I learned by experiencing things. Not being wrapped in cotton wool, Jacinda.
My brother just sent our Mum a link to an article about a camping ground that is closing down. It is at a place known as the Sandspit, out of Waiuku. He said “That name rings a bell? did we used to go there as kids?” Yes, we did. We used to go to Karioitahi as a family and The Sandspit was our launching off point to get there.
When I was 4 years old, my parents took me there while my older brothers were at school. It was over 60 years ago. I can still see the togs I wore, I can still smell the air, hear the wind and feel the sand beneath my little feet. I ran off and laughed as my father called me to come back. I ignored him, far preferring the game of hide and seek and the joy of being free. I got lost. Horribly, hopelessly lost. But it ended well. Obviously. My parents found me. But I learned to stay close by until I was old enough to know the difference between a game and reality.
I am an adult now and do not need someone younger than my daughters to tell me what is good for me. My childhood experiences were well learned.
Ms Ardern: I don’t need you to be my Mother.
After my escapade at the Sandspit, my parents still let me grow up. I fell off my bike, I chipped a tooth, I got the flu and I learned. I am still learning. They did not wrap me in cotton wool.
Kiwis are a rather adventurous lot. Let’s design a boat that will go up a river that has hardly any water! Sir William Hamilton decided that he would do just that. Ms Ardern would probably tell Mr Hamilton that it could be dangerous and would want to prevent him from giving it a go. But we Kiwis have always given it a go. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
I have observed that when someone tells me not to do something, I tend to do it just because I will be blowed if I will let someone dictate how I make my decisions.
If you pass a law saying that you cannot look at a website or view a video, chances are people will look at the video and read the website, even if it means using a VPN.
If you are from the cotton wool generation, how can you learn how to be cautious and prudent if you have never been allowed to have an adventure? Will you even know what an adventure is?
Unless we have a tree that we have fallen out of, a decision unwisely made or a point of reference, how can we ever become truly whole? My fear is that young people today will be not running off to seek adventure but more to run away. If they are running away from reality, there will be no adventure. No rescue. They will lie in the dunes and be lost forever. Because they will never have learned what reality truly is.
Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
Mahatma Gandhi