Eight years ago, shortly after the birth of my first child, some mates, also with newborns, and I would meet on a Saturday morning at the park where Eurydice Dixon was murdered.
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We would walk down Sydney Road to get coffee with our babies proudly strapped to our chests. Eight years on I have one son and three daughters and find myself sunken by this shocking event.
I grapple with the questions: What is wrong with society? What is wrong with men? There is nothing wrong with men. I know wonderful men. This is not about men versus women. This is about society versus scum.
The Bendigo Art Gallery is currently showing an exhibition of works by Myuran Sukumaran, for whom shortly before his execution a candle vigil was held similar to the one for Eurydice Dixon. Sukumaran was a convicted drug trafficker who was sentenced to death for a crime considered by Indonesia to be so destructive to their society it warranted death. Australia considered this sentence to be barbaric and uncivilised.
Yet here we are today as a society in the face of this tragedy armed only with a jail cell and three square meals a day. Perhaps our society is not currently strong enough to stop this disease. Perhaps there are men who are rotten.
I never thought I would find myself espousing the merits of the death penalty.
Mark Bolton, Bendigo
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No-one helped
I was very pleased to read the open letter to the community in Monday’s Bendigo Advertiser. I agree that men need to be told when their behaviour is not appropriate.
Recently my daughter attended Groovin the Moo, and the behaviour of men towards her was totally unacceptable.
In her words: “We wound up our night, like a lot of people, in the taxi rank line opposite Rosalind Park. We had been waiting for 20-30 minutes in the freezing cold when a group of young men decided to cut in the line after making it seem like they were just chatting with some friends in the line. This was understandably a bit annoying. I asked the men if they would mind waiting in the back of the line as it’s only fair enough as everyone else here has had to wait too. This was apparently an unfair request. One man starting barking at me, blowing cigarette smoke in my face and spitting at my feet. He had opened a flood gate. The other men starting telling me to shut up and continued this behaviour”.
No one stepped in to help. In light of the continued hate and total disregard for women it is time to stand up and be heard. It is our responsibility as mothers or partners to tell our men/boys about what is acceptable and to treat everyone with equal respect. I would hope in future that men would not spit or tell another person to shut up regardless of their gender.
Melissa Scott, Castlemaine
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Enriched thanks
I would like to congratulate the Bendigo Health volunteers who recently won the Minister for Health Volunteer Awards outstanding achievement by a volunteer for their work with stroke patients to run the Enriched Environment program.
Having such committed, respectful, empathetic and fun volunteers is an amazing contribution to our wider community. While the work they are doing is here at the hospital, the impact is far reaching. Bendigo Health has around 300 volunteers and we welcome new people to the team.
Bob Cameron, Board Chair, Bendigo Health
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