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The Age
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Age
Dancing in streets as bike riders ousted
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. TRANSPORT Elizabeth Street residents in North Richmond like me haven't stopped dancing in the street since Yarra Council's decision to scale back the bike lane and reinstate parking to both sides of the road (″ Mayor backpedals on wider bike lanes for privileged few ″, 13/8). The nightmare for we long-suffering Elizabeth St residents began in the depths of the COVID-19 lockdown in June 2020 when we received a flyer in our letterbox with a bike rider cycling down Elizabeth St and a notification of imminent works to upgrade the long-standing bike lane and remove ″some parking″. The jackhammers soon started, the newly planted street vegetation was destroyed, with the former Greens council digging up my side of the street first and installing a bike lane so wide semi-trailers could park in it. Residents then realised parking could only realistically be on the opposing north-side of Elizabeth thus halving our existing parking. Elizabeth St residents were aghast when the new bike lane nirvana was complete and rallied together, even with all the COVID-19 restrictions, lockdowns and curfews. There were Microsoft Teams upon Microsoft Teams meetings between residents and the council – complete with translators for the high number of people from non-English speaking backgrounds and many Elizabeth St professional residents lending their PCs, tablets and even their living rooms to disadvantaged residents in the street who didn't have computers or internet at home. It all amounted to nothing, and Elizabeth St residents stopped taking part in the former council's sham consultation process. But, on Tuesday, the new Yarra Council listened to its Elizabeth St residents and voted to modify the bike lane and restore parking to both sides of our street. Residents in Elizabeth St, North Richmond, will finally have their street back. Dora Houpis, Richmond Bike riders, rich and poor, want a better city (Re ″ Mayor backpedals on wider bike lanes for privileged few ″, 13/8). We're passionate bike riders, rich and poor, and we want a better city. We ride to work, school drop-off, the shops, the market – it's how we get around. Yarra's population is forecast to grow by 45,440 by 2046 and if everyone drives the place will seize up. We want a safe bike lane in Elizabeth Street as part of a network for all bike riders from everywhere. Richmond housing towers redevelopment could have a bike lane away from Elizabeth Street, the Vietnamese Buddhist temple could have drop off and pick up zones with parking nearby. There are alternatives. Bikes are a cheap, practical, healthy way of getting around. Oh and Gen Z, feeling ripped off again? Going for you first job in AI's brave new world? Grab a bike, it will lift your spirits. Elizabeth Clarke, Richmond West treated with contempt by Allan government Re ″ Marelen wastes thousands of hours commuting to work. She wants two things to change ″, 14/8. In the absence of a functional state opposition, thank heavens we have The Age to do their job of calling current and previous Labor state governments to account for their consistent neglect of the western suburbs of Melbourne. What does it say about the Allan government, that it is prepared to drag the state deeper in dept for SRL East when the same value capture case can be made for catch up strategic economic development supported by better rail infrastructure? And whatever happened to East Werribee tech employment precinct? We don't need another vision talkfest, the people of the west deserve the chance to cross examine the relevant ministers as to why they are and long have been treated with such contempt. So much for Labor governments past and present planning for all Victorians, or at least those who voted for them. Bernadette George, Mildura THE FORUM Crash and burn politics Opposition Leader's Sussan Ley's words about being a consensus-seeking politician lasted barely a month. She is sounding more like Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton every day. She's criticised the government despite interest rates falling, because it recognised Palestine as part of a bipartisan solution, because Anthony Albanese hasn't visited Donald Trump, because Australia has some of the lowest tariff increases under Trump's regime. She's already damned the results of the economic roundtable discussions that haven't been held yet. Every chance she gets, she slams the government. Obviously, she has no idea what consensus and bipartisanship mean. She is wooing those on the right rather than those in the middle where the bulk of the votes she needs are. As a pilot, you would think that she'd know that continually turning right will take you nowhere, will cause you to run out of fuel, and to crash and burn. Greg Tuck, Warragul Beyond recognition Recognising Palestine and a two-state solution is just a diplomatic issue and the easiest to resolve. And it's a good start. But what about the West Bank and the illegal settlements? That's Palestine too. What about control over the Temple Mount; a feature fiercely claimed by two incompatible religions as uniquely spiritual to them alone? And what about Jerusalem? Palestine will claim it as their capital city as does Israel. Plenty of potential for further friction, disagreement and slaughter for years to come. Andrew Barnes, Ringwood Changing course Re your correspondent's letter (″The West is dreaming″, 14/8). I don't recall any country rushing out to recognise Palestine after the attacks on October 7, 2023. What's changed since then has been the conduct of Israel and its unwillingness to try to mitigate the careless killing and starvation of thousands of Palestinians. Recognition of Palestine is a way of trying something new to change the course of this conflict. More and more countries in the world are coming around to this thinking. Cao Phan, Glen Iris
Chicago Tribune
11-06-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: Swine flu declared a pandemic
Today is Wednesday, June 11, the 162nd day of 2025. There are 203 days left in the year. Today in history: On June 11, 2009, with swine flu reported in more than 70 nations, the World Health Organization declared the first global flu pandemic in 41 years. Also on this date: In 1509, England's King Henry VIII married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. In 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five (composed of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston and Roger Sherman) to draft a declaration of independence from Great Britain, to be completed in the subsequent 17 days. 1955, in motor racing's worst disaster, more than 80 people were killed during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France when two cars collided and crashed into spectators. In 1962, Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin and John Anglin, prisoners at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, staged an escape, leaving the island on a makeshift raft. They were never found or heard from again. In 1963, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức lit himself on fire on a Saigon street as a protest against the Vietnamese government's persecution of Buddhists. In 1963, the University of Alabama was desegregated as Vivian Malone and James Hood became the first two Black students allowed to enroll in classes; Alabama segregationist and Gov. George Wallace initially blocked the doorway to the auditorium where course registration was taking place, delivering a speech before deferring to National Guard orders to move. In 1987, Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in over 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office as her Conservative Party held onto a reduced majority in Parliament. In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. Today's Birthdays: Drummer Bernard Purdie is 86. International Motorsports Hall of Famer Jackie Stewart is 86. Actor Roscoe Orman is 81. Actor Adrienne Barbeau is 80. Rock musician Frank Beard (ZZ Top) is 76. Singer Graham Russell (Air Supply) is 75. Football Hall of Famer Joe Montana is 69. Actor Hugh Laurie is 66. TV personality and current Medicare Administrator Mehmet Oz is 65. Actor Peter Dinklage is 56. Actor Joshua Jackson is 47. U.S. Olympic and WNBA basketball star Diana Taurasi is 43. Actor Shia LaBeouf is 39. Basketball Hall of Famer Maya Moore is 36.
Boston Globe
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Today in History: June 11, University of Alabama desegregated
In 1775, 250 years ago, rebel leaders in Massachusetts approved a letter to the Second Continental Congress seeking aid and guidance. The letter reported that General Thomas Gage, holed up in Boston, had at least 5,000 British regular soldiers. 'We have great reason to apprehend, that a reenforcement of at least eight regiments of foot and one of horse may be hourly ex-pected.' In 1776, the Second Continental Congress appointed the Committee of Five (composed of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman) to draft a declaration of independence from Great Britain, to be completed in the subsequent 17 days. Advertisement 1955, in motor racing's worst disaster, more than 80 people were killed during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France when two cars collided and crashed into spectators. Advertisement In 1962, Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin, and John Anglin, prisoners at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary in San Francisco Bay, staged an escape, leaving the island on a makeshift raft. They were never found or heard from again. In 1963, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức lit himself on fire on a Saigon street as a protest against the Vietnamese government's persecution of Buddhists. In 1963, the University of Alabama was desegregated as Vivian Malone and James Hood became the first two Black students allowed to enroll in classes; Alabama segregationist and Governor George Wallace initially blocked the doorway to the auditorium where course registration was taking place, delivering a speech before deferring to National Guard orders to move. In 1987, Margaret Thatcher became the first British prime minister in over 160 years to win a third consecutive term of office as her Conservative Party held onto a reduced majority in Parliament. In 2001, Timothy McVeigh, 33, was executed by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. In 2009, with swine flu reported in more than 70 nations, the World Health Organization declared the first global flu pandemic in 41 years.
New York Times
09-02-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Trading Hope for Reality Helps Me Parent Through the Climate Crisis
When I gave birth to my first child, in 2019, it seemed like everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. He came out white and limp, his head dangling off to the side. People swarmed into the hospital room, trying to suction his lungs so he could breathe. Hours later, my husband and I stood in the NICU, looking down at this newborn baby, hooked up to wires and tubes. We had spent months talking about how to protect him from various harmful influences, and here we were, an hour out of the gate, dealing with a situation we hadn't even considered. Had his brain been deprived of oxygen for too long? Would there be lifelong damage? That night in the hospital, I learned the first lesson of parenting: You are not in control of what is going to happen, nor can you predict it. This applies to your child's personality, many of his choices and to some extent his health. It also applies to the growing threat of climate change. The climate crisis is bad and getting worse. Here in Oregon, we've endured several severe heat waves and wildfires in recent years. As the impacts compound, it's clear a lot of people around the world — many of them children — are going to suffer and die. Globally, one in three children is exposed to deadly heat waves, and even more to unclean water. A study estimated wildfire smoke to be 10 times as harmful to children's developing lungs as typical pollution. Researchers also concluded that nearly every child in the world is at risk from at least one climate-intensified hazard: extreme heat, severe storms and floods, wildfires, food insecurity and insect-borne diseases. If you are someone like me who has children and lies awake terrified for their future, you should not let hopelessness about climate change paralyze you. In fact, I would argue that right now the bravest thing to do — even braver than hoping — is to stop hoping. 'When I think deeply about the nature of hope, I see something tragic,' the Vietnamese Buddhist monk and author Thich Nhat Hanh, who died in 2022, wrote in his book 'Peace Is Every Step.' 'Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment.' What does parenting without hope look like? For me, it is living with the knowledge that my two children will likely face challenges I cannot even imagine. It is grieving that I cannot give them the life I would wish for them. It is choosing to act, by joining local climate activist groups and curbing my air travel. I do it not because I think I can magically save my children from the climate crisis, but because I am fully aware that I cannot. But most of all, it is accepting that I cannot know, nor control, everything that will happen to my children. I often think of the writer Emily Rapp Black, whose son Ronan died just before his third birthday from Tay-Sachs disease. 'This is what parenting a child with no future has taught me: Nothing is forever,' she wrote in a 2013 essay. 'There is only now, the moment, the love you bear, the knowledge that loving is about letting go, and that the power of a person's grief is a reflection of the depth of their love.' Recognizing impermanence is the whole game. Loving and losing and loving and losing some more. This is the only way I know how to parent. It's the only way I know how to live. Last month, as fires destroyed huge parts of Los Angeles, I was in Oregon, at the park with my father and my two young children, pushing them on the swings. Later, as we walked home from the park, my father told me that when he and my mother first met, he had been afraid to have children. It was the 1980s, and he was certain the world was headed toward nuclear war. 'I couldn't imagine exposing my children to that,' he told me. 'What changed?' I asked him. 'I realized it was arrogance,' he said. 'To think I could see into the future and decide that life should not extend past me.' We kept walking. The afternoon sun lit up everything in golden hues. My children in the distance: two little bobbing hats. Their entire futures, unknown to me. Out of my control. I thought of everything my father would have spared me from: loneliness and loss and failure and a body full of microplastics. A world that is both underwater and on fire. Also, friendship and pizza and laughing until I have to catch my breath. Holding my children for the first time. This moment, here at the park, walking with my father. So much that could go wrong. I'm truly terrified of what's coming. But I wouldn't miss it for the world. 'I'm glad you changed your mind,' I said. 'Yeah, me too,' he said.
