Bega
Valley Traditional Archers Inc (BVTA) wishes to advise its members and many
supporters that the Club does not concur with the comments attributed to Cr
Keith Hughes, in the article “Hughes takes aim at Archery”
[Bega District News, January 25, 2013].
BVTA is a not-for-profit community organisation that strives to ensure that archery is developed as an inclusive, respectful, responsible and safe sporting option for all residents of the Bega Valley.
BVTA does not believe that the Valley’s seniors are “less likely to be able to pull a bow back”, or that they are too “feeble” to engage in archery, as is Cr Hughes’ position.
Cr Hughes’ assertion that archery is an inappropriate sport for youth is nothing short of bizarre, and his statements suggesting that Council support for our Club’s recent application for Youth Week event funding would be somehow equivalent to taxpayers’ money subsidising acts of animal cruelty, is insulting, both to our Club and to the Valley’s youth.
Further, Cr Hughes’ assertion that BVTA is in the business of “inculcating” young people into a path of gun violence, is at best ill-informed, and at worst, evidence of a disassociation with reality that borders on the paranoid.
The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘Inculcate’ as “teaching or influencing persistently and repeatedly so as to implant or instil an idea, theory, attitude”, in other words, ‘brainwashing’. Cr Hughes’ addition of this colourful term to his already burgeoning arsenal of offensive verbal weaponry, demonstrates his ongoing commitment to subterfuge and offence by stealth.
Neither our Club nor its supporters are engaged in brainwashing, Cr Hughes, and we find it deeply offensive and of great concern that you would abuse your position as Councillor in order to attempt to attribute this dark intent to our activities.
BVTA is a not-for-profit community organisation that strives to ensure that archery is developed as an inclusive, respectful, responsible and safe sporting option for all residents of the Bega Valley.
BVTA does not believe that the Valley’s seniors are “less likely to be able to pull a bow back”, or that they are too “feeble” to engage in archery, as is Cr Hughes’ position.
Cr Hughes’ assertion that archery is an inappropriate sport for youth is nothing short of bizarre, and his statements suggesting that Council support for our Club’s recent application for Youth Week event funding would be somehow equivalent to taxpayers’ money subsidising acts of animal cruelty, is insulting, both to our Club and to the Valley’s youth.
Further, Cr Hughes’ assertion that BVTA is in the business of “inculcating” young people into a path of gun violence, is at best ill-informed, and at worst, evidence of a disassociation with reality that borders on the paranoid.
The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘Inculcate’ as “teaching or influencing persistently and repeatedly so as to implant or instil an idea, theory, attitude”, in other words, ‘brainwashing’. Cr Hughes’ addition of this colourful term to his already burgeoning arsenal of offensive verbal weaponry, demonstrates his ongoing commitment to subterfuge and offence by stealth.
Neither our Club nor its supporters are engaged in brainwashing, Cr Hughes, and we find it deeply offensive and of great concern that you would abuse your position as Councillor in order to attempt to attribute this dark intent to our activities.
It
is statements such as those made by Councillor Hughes, in a full session of
Council, that are marking-out a new genre of social and cultural intolerance in
the Bega Valley, fostered by the Valley's few rabid-Green cultural bigots and
self-styled guardians of social and moral welfare. Such people seek to mislead
the community in order to foster a climate of fear and community hatred to
advance their own agenda of intolerance, and such behaviour has no place in the
Bega Valley.
Councillor Hughes’ position that “The sport of archery leads young people down a path toward an unsporting gun culture” bears all the hallmarks of so many forms of irational bigotry that seek to dehumanize a group within the community, to deny their humanity and their dignity.
Councillor Hughes’ position that “The sport of archery leads young people down a path toward an unsporting gun culture” bears all the hallmarks of so many forms of irational bigotry that seek to dehumanize a group within the community, to deny their humanity and their dignity.
The
world’s leading anthropologists include the development of bow & arrow
technologies among the four most important epochs in human development – the
other three being the development of fire-making technologies, the development
of language and the invention of the wheel. Since there is an undeniable link
between fire and pyromania, cars and road fatalities, language and abuse,
perhaps at some time in the future Cr Hughes will lobby against Council support
for anything that involves matches, wheels or words. Certainly, Cr Hughes has
amply demonstrated the damage words can do at the command of an irresponsible
novice.
Bega
Valley Traditional Archers Inc. is committed to the preservation of skills and
cultural practices with historical significance reaching back to the dawn of
human civilisation. The illogical and offensive statements of demonstrated
cultural bigots will not deter us from this endeavour.
Garry Mallard OAM
Secretary
Bega Valley Traditional Archers Inc
Bega Valley Traditional Archers Inc
Hughes takes aim at archery
Friday, 25 January, 2013
By Ben Smyth
The Bega District News
THE sport of archery leads young people down a path toward an unsporting gun culture.
That was the view expressed by Cr Keith Hughes at last week’s Bega Valley Shire Council meeting during discussions over Youth Week and Seniors Week grants.
The Bega Valley Traditional Archers was one of nine groups whose applications for a grant to assist with Seniors Week activities were recommended for approval by council staff.
They had also applied for an additional grant for Youth Week activities, one of five community organisations in the Bega Valley to do so.
Cr Hughes spoke out against including the archery group in both instances.
His view that it was not a suitable activity for seniors as they “are less likely to be able to pull the bow back” and are “more feeble” drew shocked looks and exclamations of disbelief from several of his fellow councillors.
Cr Hughes then held to his assertion during discussion over the groups recommended for Youth Week grants, saying “it is even more inappropriate for youth than seniors”.
“I think it’s the start of inculcation to gun culture,” he said.
“Although I accept the Traditional Archers are well meaning and there’s a place for that, there are also examples not far from here of the inappropriate use of bows and arrows, leading to what I think is the inappropriate use of firearms.
“I don’t think that is something ratepayers’ money should be subsidising.”
Cr Hughes was the only dissenting vote on the Seniors Week grants, while both he and Cr Sharon Tapscott voted against the motion to approve all five applications for Youth Week grants.
Those receiving money for Seniors Week activities include the Bega Valley Traditional Archers, Imlay District Nursing Home, U3A Sapphire Coast ($500 each); Men’s Shed Merimbula ($145); Bermagui Senior Citizens Welfare Club ($320); Sapphire Coast Book Club ($200); Eden Community Access Centre ($375); Eden Men’s Shed ($350); and the Bega Senior Citizens Club ($420).
Youth Week grant recipients, who will each receive a $1000 grant, include Spiral Gallery, Auswide Projects, Candelo Arts Society, Theatre Onset and the Traditional Archers.
(ends)
Friday, 25 January, 2013
By Ben Smyth
The Bega District News
THE sport of archery leads young people down a path toward an unsporting gun culture.
That was the view expressed by Cr Keith Hughes at last week’s Bega Valley Shire Council meeting during discussions over Youth Week and Seniors Week grants.
The Bega Valley Traditional Archers was one of nine groups whose applications for a grant to assist with Seniors Week activities were recommended for approval by council staff.
They had also applied for an additional grant for Youth Week activities, one of five community organisations in the Bega Valley to do so.
Cr Hughes spoke out against including the archery group in both instances.
His view that it was not a suitable activity for seniors as they “are less likely to be able to pull the bow back” and are “more feeble” drew shocked looks and exclamations of disbelief from several of his fellow councillors.
Cr Hughes then held to his assertion during discussion over the groups recommended for Youth Week grants, saying “it is even more inappropriate for youth than seniors”.
“I think it’s the start of inculcation to gun culture,” he said.
“Although I accept the Traditional Archers are well meaning and there’s a place for that, there are also examples not far from here of the inappropriate use of bows and arrows, leading to what I think is the inappropriate use of firearms.
“I don’t think that is something ratepayers’ money should be subsidising.”
Cr Hughes was the only dissenting vote on the Seniors Week grants, while both he and Cr Sharon Tapscott voted against the motion to approve all five applications for Youth Week grants.
Those receiving money for Seniors Week activities include the Bega Valley Traditional Archers, Imlay District Nursing Home, U3A Sapphire Coast ($500 each); Men’s Shed Merimbula ($145); Bermagui Senior Citizens Welfare Club ($320); Sapphire Coast Book Club ($200); Eden Community Access Centre ($375); Eden Men’s Shed ($350); and the Bega Senior Citizens Club ($420).
Youth Week grant recipients, who will each receive a $1000 grant, include Spiral Gallery, Auswide Projects, Candelo Arts Society, Theatre Onset and the Traditional Archers.
(ends)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments are welcome, and dont forget to recommend this post to a friend.
Thanks!