Letters: 22 - 28 Oct 2008

Advertise • Help • Contact Us • Permissions

Discussions Groups Events Blogs Photos Premium Irish Circle

Edit Profile Friends Requests Messages Updates

Discussions Groups Events Photos Blogs Irish Pubs Local Networks Expat Info GAA Clubs Rugby Clubs Dating Worldwide

Working in Ireland Working Abroad Currency Converter Jobs Ireland Banking Ireland Irish Sites

Info Ireland Vacation Packages Hotels Car Rental Golf Ferries Hostels Day Tours

Irish Name Register Passenger Lists Screensavers Advice & Resources

Irish News Music & Songs Recipes Proverbs e-Postcards History & Archaeology Heritage & Culture Mythology Irish Studies Literature Gaelic

Gifts & Jewellery Books Music Food Heraldry Clothes Other

Irish Voice

Columnists

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Read newsletters

Enter your e-mail address to receive our weekly e-Newsletter:

Letters from Irish Voice readers

Letters: 22 - 28 Oct 2008

October 22, 2008

We’re All Sinners

ACCORDING to James V. Burke’s letter “Let’s Dump the GOP” in last week’s issue, there is only one constant evil in America — Republicans lead by President George W. Bush.

They got us into the Iraq War and we now have 4,000 troops dead.

The Kennedy/Johnson Vietnam War had 45,000 U.S. soldiers dead, and all for nothing. Communists still rule there. But that is okay; they were Democrats.

Wall Street and Republicans caused the present financial crisis. There is no mention that the government sponsored mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is where the crisis started. Left wing Democratic Congressman Barney Frank refused all reform when the alarm was sounded well in advance of any crisis.

To add insult to injury, Democrat and Washington insider Franklin Raines took $90 million in salary and bonuses for six years as CEO of Fannie Mae before he got fired.

What’s $90 million when you consider he put nearly one trillion dollars of useless receivables on Fannie’s books? We the taxpayers are left to pay up, and the poor who were supposed to be helped are out on the street.

The $12.5 trillion Social Security deficit due to unfunded liabilities accumulated over the 40 years that Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and hence the purse strings. That financial bomb is still ticking.

And the last time I checked Democrats were refusing to sign off on Bush’s budget unless an additional $25 billion was added.

I always suspected that Democrats were tainted with original sin like the rest of us. A little analysis shows that is indeed true.

Keep that in mind when you go to the polls.

John Rogers
Voorhees, New Jersey

McCain’s Irish Pass

THE two most significant American developments in the struggle for Irish freedom and unity are the MacBride Principles for fair employment, and the granting of a visa to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

On both of these initiatives Senator John McCain took a pass. Irish American voters should keep this record in mind when we cast our votes for president.

Edmund Lynch
Denville, New Jersey

Scurrilous Attack

IF ever I came across irresponsible journalism it was Cormac MacConnell’s column “Send Sarah Back to Redneckia” (September 17-23) pertaining to Sarah Palin’s character and our present political scene.

The column was downright scurrilous in every sense of the word. His name calling and constant use of the word “redneck” to describe a smart and capable lady who shows far more responsibility and respect in her profession than MacConnell in his journalistic endeavors made his self-adorned mantle as political analyst fall flat on its face.

To put the shoe on the other foot, one wonders if an American journalist of MacConnell’s ilk were to write a similar article in a newspaper in Ireland, and continually referred to MacConnell as a bogtrotter, or some such moniker, how such a piece would be received by Cormac. Certainly not in a charitable manner I’m sure.

His reference to Palin’s beer drinking and joint smoking was also uncalled for, which makes me wonder – how many pints did Cormac consume before he sat down to pen such a diatribe?

Bartholomew Ryan
Elizabeth, New Jersey

What’s With Crazy Cormac?

I WRITE in reference to Cormac MacConnell’s column about Sarah Palin. As long-time readers who have enjoyed Cormac’s many touching and humorous writings, we were absolutely appalled to read this attack piece on one of our vice presidential candidates.

Perhaps it can be partially explained – that is, Cormac’s evident “born again” character, from respected observer of human beings, places and events to a liberal anti-American zealot, after he read “an article yesterday on the BBC website about redneck America and Sarah Palin.”

The BBC has long been a strongly anti-American voice. However, why someone as gifted a writer as Cormac is should stoop to the BBC’s level is a mystery.

The article can only be, at best, a foolish piece. Just to repeat a few of the more onerous terms Cormac uses in addition to his “Redneckia” euphemism, he adds such terms as “a Calamity Jane of a politician,” “a real, genuine 100% nickel plated gun toting redneck, “the woman is as colorful as Dolly Parton,” “I’d swear she drinks her beer direct from the can,” “when she smoked a joint in her college days she certainly inhaled,” etc.

Has Cormac ever met Sarah Palin, as he has met those he writes about in the olde country so well? No. He knows only what someone else has said – that someone else, of course, having the same liberal/Democratic prejudices as Cormac displays elsewhere in the piece. (“I welcomed the arrival of Barack Obama on the scene,” “it was time your frightening Bush was ousted from office,” etc.)

Out of respect for dear Ireland (as my wife is Irish, and our family proud dual citizens thereof), I will refrain from mentioning anything about politics in Ireland, though any book about that subject would necessarily include the recent forcing out of the prime minister.

It is our sincere hope that your respected writer Cormac MacConnell (not to be confused with the befuddled person who wrote the Sarah article) will return to what he does so well.

Perhaps he wrote this piece in a pub late at night, and forgot to throw it out. We can only hope!

M.R. Russell
Troy, Michigan

Blame Thatcher

I WOULD like to respond to John Gregg’s letter “Republican Thugs Strike” (September 17-23) about how the Brits were and have been the victims throughout the Troubles.

First of all, has he ever been to Northern Ireland, or spoken to anyone who lived through it all? I doubt it.

I have a friend from Strabane, Co. Tyrone who has lived through it every day, and he blames Margaret Thatcher, who was a tyrant, and says most of the problems could have been avoided if she took the time to talk to the people like Tony Blair did.

Does Mr. Gregg remember the Guildford Four, or the Birmingham Six, who spent time in prison for something the Brits covered up? Does he remember Bloody Sunday, when the paratroopers opened fire and killed 14 innocent people and wounded a lot more? Does he remember Bobby Sands and the men of ’81 who died in Long Kesh because Maggie let them die?

I don’t think the Irish people want the marches by Protestants through their neighborhoods, but at least let the organizers talk to the community and made some sort of deal so there won’t be any trouble.

My friend told me that there were signs in Strabane one time that read “No Catholics Need Apply.” I’m not saying that Catholics are always the victims, but they are much more than the Brits.

Put the blame where it belongs on Maggie Thatcher. Remember the slogan, “Go on home, British soldiers.”

Jim Harrington
Arlington, Massachusetts

Hypocritical Sinn Fein

PROVISIONAL Sinn Fein has received criticism recently in several Irish papers for its planned protest at the November 2 Belfast homecoming parade for British soldiers returning from Iraq. The basis for much of the criticism is that the protest is a political move designed to sour community relations.

In the October 20 Irish Times, writer Gerry Moriarity stated that Sinn Fein Assembly member Alex Maskey said, “The protest would be a peaceful and dignified parade designed to highlight opposition to the ‘illegal wars’ in Iraq and Afghanistan,” and “to highlight the many victims of the British Army, UDR and the Royal Irish Regiment here at home.”

Is this not the same party that signed away Ireland’s claim to the six counties in the Belfast Agreement? Is this not the same party that now sits in Stormont as paid British MPs, administering British rule in the six Irish counties in the North?

It is hypocritical of the Provos to protest against British aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan while supporting British rule in Ireland!

Jane Enright
Woodside, New York

Share this story: digg this | Add to del.icio.us

Print Save Discussions

Discuss

Email a friend