Help Legalize Us

ONCE again this year the emotional rollercoaster is riding high for me. In April my brother and his girlfriend died tragically in a car accident in Co. Kerry.

I did not go home for the funerals for fear I would not get back to my home that I have made for myself over 15 years in the U.S.

Well, this weekend my sister’s hen party is on in Kerry as she is getting married in September. This is the third family wedding I am going to miss because of my undocumented status.

I have tried to block it out and not think about it, but I just received a text message from another sister and was told how much they are missing me and would love if I was there. They say they understand, but I know that deep down they are saying, “Why does she live there, she has no life, she can’t even travel home?”

We need to keep up the momentum that we had for the last few months and work together and finish the job and legalize the Irish. No more missed funerals, weddings or family occasions.

The congressional elections are coming in November and we need to be as vocal as we have been. The candidates need to know that we are serious about comprehensive Immigration reform.

So get involved in the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform. Attend the weekly meetings in your areas. We are going to succeed and legalize the 50,000 Irish here.

The dog days of summer are nearly over, so no more excuses not to get involved. So check the website www.legalizetheirish.org, and see you all at the weekly meetings.

Mary
ILIR Volunteer

The Niece Problem

IF it were my niece that was in the country illegally I might see emotion replacing validity in Marie K.’s misguided argument in her letter What’s Wrong With This?” in the July 19-25 issue.

I would say in response that her niece is in my country illegally. That she has stepped out of queue and moved to the head of the line without regard for those who would follow the law.

I wonder if Marie K. would feel the same way if somebody jumped in front of her while in line to get tickets to the theater or at the check-out line at the local grocery?

Next question – are her niece and her employers paying Social Security, F.I.C.A. and other withholdings employees and employees are required to pay legally? Does Marie K.’s attitude on illegal immigration include Asians, Nigerians and Eastern Europeans, or is her generosity limited to solely the Irish?

Jerry Hoosier
Orange, California

Come Back, Derek

I AM writing about musician Derek Warfield and his family. His wife Nuala passed away on March 1 of this year.

I sent him a sympathy card and received a very nice thank you card from him, saying a Mass would be offered for my intentions.

I became friends with Derek a couple of years ago and never regretted it. To me his still the classiest entertainer I know. I wish he would come back to the U.S. and perform again.

Jim Harrington
Arlington, Massachusetts

Irish Not Anti-Semitic

IN his letter to the Irish Voice in last week’s issue, Patrick McVeigh equates criticism of Israel’s policies with anti-Semitism.

Noam Chomsky and other prominent Jewish American intellectuals, however, contend that criticism of Israel’s policies by non-Jews is routinely stereotyped as anti-Semitism, while similar criticism voiced by Jews is curtly dismissed as “Jewish self-hatred.” Mr. Chomsky laments that doing so effectively frustrates all avenues of dissent.

In spite of the fact that Jews represent only a minute minority in Ireland, Irish Jews have been elected mayors of Ireland’s two largest cities (Briscoe in Dublin and Goldberg in Cork) as well as to the Dail (Irish Parliament).

Do you think a Jew would ever be elected to any office in America’s bible belt? In his autobiography For the Life of Me, Robert Briscoe boasts that there is less anti-Semitism in Ireland than any country in Europe (and less than in the U.S.)

In the story recalled by Mr. McVeigh, Ehad Haam reveals that in the 1950s, his childhood chum “Shimmy” expresses the fear that Ehad would go to hell. This is quite obviously more a reflection of the religious fundamentalist rigidity of the times than of any anti-Semitism.

“Shimmy” would have most certainly expressed the same fears had Ehad been a Lutheran, Quaker or Moslem. Thank God, the repressive era of the Magdalene Sisters is long dead and gone.

Today’s Ireland is a modern, progressive country which was rated number one in The Economist in 2005 for its “quality of life.”

Criticism of aggressive Israeli policies stems not from any anti-Semitism, but from the simple recognition of colonialism facilitated by Ireland’s own historic memory. When they see Palestinian houses bulldozed and the families driven from their land, a history of burning farms and absentee landlords naturally comes to mind.

It should be remembered that Israeli hero General Moshe Dayan once resigned in protest against Israel’s expansionist settlement policies. Was he an anti-Semite?

Twenty-seven Israeli pilots (dubbed “refuse-nicks”) resigned because they would not drop bombs on civilians. More anti-Semites?

Author and holocaust survivor Silvia Tennenbaum published a scathing opinion in Newsday condemning Israel’s atrocities, adding that the “Holocaust victims would decry the slaughter of innocent children.”

Perhaps Mr. McVeigh considers the slaughter and dismemberment of hundreds of women and children an appropriate and ethical response to the capture of two military personnel. Much to their credit, many Jews do not concur.

There is probably no group who has contributed more to society than the Jews. They have often led in brave struggles for human rights, freedom of speech and justice.

A true friend, however, is one with enough honesty, objectivity and fortitude to guide their friends when they are headed down the wrong path. Israel’s current path can only lead to sorrow, death and destruction.

Then again, that is what the apocalypse lunatics of the religious right look forward to.

John O’Donnell
Brick, New Jersey

More Bulgers, Please

WITH regards to the letter “Enough of the Bulgers” by James Ryan in the July 19-25 issue, I did not know there were existing movies about the infamous Bulger family.

On the one hand, Mr. Ryan admits that the Bulgers are a compelling story, and on the other that every two-bit director is making movies about the Bulgers.

Martin Scorsese is one of the greatest directors of our time, and is held in honor and esteem by the movie industry and the general public. Goodfellas was a wonderfully realistic and accurate movie about New York organized crime.

His Gangs of New York was a wonderful story about the plight of the Irish in early New York, and I am truly grateful to Mr. Scorsese for bringing that story to the big screen.

Since I also have followed the story of James “Whitey” Bulger closely and have read many books on the subject, I know that Whitey was in fact a cold-hearted killer, yet he was also a very bright and savvy man. He is still at large and wanted by the FBI.

I feel think that along with his brother William, a top educator and polar opposite of Whitey in terms of life choices, the Bulger story is extremely interesting.

Lastly, I would love to see a movie about my old childhood haunts in Hell’s Kitchen on the West Side of Manhattan. The Irish at that time ran the area for many years, ending with the Westies, who were ruthless, tough and crazy.

Mallory P. Canny
Somerville, New Jersey