We have all noted the overnight atrocities committed by one radicalised ‘lone wolf’ ISIS operative in Manhattan, who randomly killed eight and injuring 11.

Contrast this against an estimated forty returning ISIS sympathisers and fighters that have been given a ‘green light’ to spend their “R and R” in Australia to freshen up before being sufficiently motivated to return to the Middle East to continue committing indiscriminate bloodshed. Who is accountable for this dozy decision?

DJ Preece,  Balgownie

We all know water is imperative to life whether we're drinking it, swimming in it or using an umbrella to protect ourselves from it. The weather man keeps making these big promises for us to get out our gumboots and raincoats but we still wake up to clear skies.

Rain can often seem like a distant memory , and correct me if I'm wrong but weren't we in a 10 year drought a few years back? So this leads me to the question: Why on earth when God decides to take a shower,  would we not collect every precious drop to store for when we have those very long dry spells? 

To me , it seems that when it does rain , all that free water is not being utilised for example bushfire season, and is just allowed to run away without a backward glance.

If by now our government are not using gigantic rain tanks, or building new dams to harness this precious commodity we are blessed with , they should be hanging their heads in shame. Don't be a drip Malcolm and store don't ignore.

Cara Dunn,West Wollongong

Beachside scrub cleared at Bellambi. Well done Wollongong Council.

At last the area between the beach and houses is getting managed.

This invaluable area which has been subjected to plant and forget bush care strategy resulting in spreading lantana dying, short term scrub and weeds and unmanageable loss of coastal views vermin breeding grounds at last is being addressed.

Spread out shade trees, no understorey and able to maintain easily by mechanical means makes for a managed sustainable future for this invaluable resource.

Well done council.

Ken McDougall,  Bulli 

I've just read Glen Humphries’ column about the price of beer going up but not wine.

He's correct in what he says however beer will go up by 15 cents per can/bottle as that was agreed to when the scheme was first proposed.

Apparently the 5 cent difference is to pay for running the scheme, although South Australia and the Northern Territory don't do that.

Coca Cola has already announced their price increase.

That means we lose 5 cents for every container we buy. All our recyclables go into the yellow bin but perhaps in protest from now on we'll send them all to landfill via the red bin.

Keith Norris, Bellambi

When Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote his poem The Charge of the Light Brigade he included: "Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is just to do and die".

When are we going to question 'why'?

Perhaps when we do we will stop sending our best to just "do and die '.

It is important to recognise the valiant actions of those who risked their lives and also those who lost their lives.

But also to question the reason they were sent. When we do that we might stop sending them.

Reg Wilding, Corrimal