United Future

Peter,

Your words are my thoughts after yesterday's reporting on TV of mainly noise from protesters. I am quite discouraged at the hijacking of what is our Day. As you have mentioned, non-Maori are staying away and I loathed the idea of celebrating "Waitangi Day". The racism of Maori towards pakeha and the racism of non-Maori towards Maori are really irritating me.

I agree: let's challenge the idea of "Waitangi Day" and rename it "New Zealand Day." The other issue would have to be do we really need to have a Day at Waitangi every year? I am in agreement that Waitangi Day "celebrations" are becoming a farce. And sir, that saddens me, and deepens my disillusionment about being a New Zealander.

Fantastic speech you gave Peter, very inspirational. I would love to have New Zealand Day where it was about unity, community, and being proud to be kiwis from all walks of life.

I never look forward to Waitangi Day, its really just a protest day and that is a sad thing. Its not a celebration of nationhood and it should be. We should be able to have a day where we are proud to live in this wonderful place. Whether it replace the name Waitangi Day, or another significant day in our nation's history is elected, we need to have New Zealand Day. Its about time we learned to have a little pride and patriotism.

I'm not sure what I think about replacing Waitangi Day, as even though I don't like the current situation surrounding its events, it is quite an historical day. But I am an historian at heart and thats probably where it comes from. If it came down to a choice between the two though, NZ Day any time.