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• Published date: 17 December 2020

I was very interested to read your editorial “Without fear or favour” (December 15).

My experience over the years is that there is an established alarming trend that police either pick on or ignore, when needed, senior, usually dare I say, white males.

Police in small resorts or towns will come tearing out over minor incidents, and cities are the same. In so-called assaults, like rugby stoushes or scuffles, it is always the retaliator that gets reprimanded, as often the instigator is out of view.

On the other hand I have been involved in dangerous incidents and rang 111, when police took one to two hours to respond in spite of being close to town, and not showing much concern, leading me to think, why bother if it happens again?

Tim Glasson

Kaikohe

Kindness of strangers

Yesterday morning my iPad rang. I was surprised by a Skype from my nephew Patrick, in California. He said, “I have sad news for you. Najeeb has died.” Najeeb was the patriarch of an Arab family from Jordan.

They owned a dairy in California, on San Clemente Beach. My nephew had been abandoned by his parents when they moved north to Seattle. He was slow of speech and stuttered, but he had a bright, friendly smile. He was a shy boy, left with no one and no place to stay, so he slept under the San Clemente pier.

He caught fish, scrounged for scraps and searched the beach for coins. When he found some change he went to the dairy. Najeeb watched him, and he told me that he felt Patrick was a good boy. He talked to his family, and they agreed to invite Patrick to live with them.

I had been out of touch, living on Maui, Hawaii, so I did not know that my nephew had been abandoned.

When I found Patrick more than 10 years later, Najeeb told me the whole story. He said Patrick was a member of his family, and then he laughed, saying, “He gets better presents than my own sons.”

Patrick was hanai (Hawaiian) or whangai (Māori) for this kind Arab family. To be hanai means that you are chosen, and yes, you get special treatment.

The matriarch of my Hawaiian family had 62 descendants, but she gave her Hawaiian name, Puaohiokamalani, to my daughter. In the Hawaiian culture, you can only give your name once in your lifetime. It was a great honour to have the name of a kuia bestowed on my daughter.

I told Patrick how much I respected Najeeb. He said, “Najeeb liked you too.” I finished the conversation, telling Patrick, “When you can travel again, we want you to visit.” He ended, “I will.”

As his image faded from my iPad screen, I was looking at the face of a strong, confident man who was suffering the loss of his beloved father figure.

If an Arab family can welcome a homeless, blond boy, can the world expect Biden and Harris, with Obama close at hand, to finally address the question posed by a plaintive Rodney King: “Can we all just get along?”

Mike Ward

Cable Bay

Slow down!

Jan Francis (Letters, Northern Advocate, December 14) appears to be saying that everyone and every outcome should be made to be equal. This is a communist ideal that is more fanciful than real. Is this what parents barrack at their kids at school cross country, “Slow down, be average?”

There will always be natural inequality because everyone is unique. We each have a unique perspective, abilities and priorities. Natural “inequality” is everywhere – even in one family of any ethnicity.

However, legal equality means we...