Dear Sir... Readers' Views (18/10/16)
Trump leaves Clinton as the least worst option for US
US ‘First Lady’ Michelle Obama’s rebuke of the misogyny of Donald Trump was effective and appropriate, but the Gettysburg address it was not.
It is right that Trump’s repugnant idiocy is called out. However, hyper-emotional rhetoric of any hue, from any place, is the enemy of true democracy.
The British Conservative MP, Julian Critchley, once famously said that Michael Heseltine knew how to locate the clitoris of the Conservative Party.
In a sense, all politicians are either manipulating or assaulting us in the proverbial nether regions, all the time.
The increasing problem with what is left of democracy is that reductive, irrelevant narratives are presented to electorates as fundamental, when the the truth is they are mere distractions.
In Ireland, the faux narrative presented last week, that ‘New Politics’ valiantly seeks to ‘hold the centre’, is a classic example of the art of anti-democracy.
We are now governed by the largest majority in the history of the State.
Fianna Fáil is a part of this government. It dictates policy. It inserts provisions into our national budget. Yet, we are manipulated into believing that Fianna Fáil is leading the opposition.
Donald Trump is a sick joke who will be rejected by the American people.
However, the people of the US will not be given a chance to reject the so-called, ‘new-liberal’ economic policies that dominate and are destroying the world. It won’t, because the least-worst option will win.
Hillary Clinton, servant of Goldman Sachs and corporate America, will always place loyalty to the mega-rich over any pantomime liking for America’s poor, or, indeed, Ireland’s.
Abuse victims often repress it
Whatever about the veracity of the claims made by Jessica Leeds, accusing Donald Trump of sexual assault, as referred to in Val Martin’s letter in Saturday’s Irish Examiner, Martin shows no understanding of the victims of sexual assault.
Martin criticises Leeds for concealing this “for over 30 years, knowing that her attacker could offend again.”
For the majority of victims of sexual assault it is difficult to speak about privately, let alone publicly.
Many people carry such secrets to their graves. To speak publicly requires courage and healing.
This is more so if sexual abuse occurs in childhood and the perpetrator is a close familial relation.
The fact that Jessica Leeds never spoke publicly about this is more in common with other victims of sexual assault.
US election has become a ‘circus’
US Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has launched a new offensive against his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Mr Trump has accused Mrs Clinton of having taken a performance-enhancing drug before their last presidential debate.
Do Americans realise this presidential election circus is a mockery? Perhaps It honestly doesn’t occur to them.
Judging by the farcical debates, whichever candidate can dig up the best muck on the other will win.
In some respects, Donald Trump is an impressive person.
In other respects, he doesn’t have the sense to come in out of the rain.
The Republicans sent an amateur to do battle with professionals, and, so far, the results aren’t pretty.
This is not a conventional election.
Speaking up for speech therapy
Your article, ‘Budget 2017: Speech therapy for children with disabilities is part of €10M package’ (Irish Examiner, October 12) was a breath of fresh air amid the numerous articles from Ireland about the thousands of children on waiting lists for speech therapy.
I am heartened to know that it seems this tragedy is finally being addressed.
Over the years, here in the US, many Americans I have met have praised the great healthcare system in the Republic of Ireland, holding it up as a model.
How can Ireland claim to take care of its people’s health needs, if thousands and thousands of children are being turned away from speech therapy and put onto a waiting list?
I am a stammerer and I know that stammering is the most prevalent speech problem, especially among children.
In light of the grim numbers on the waiting list for speech therapy, I would like to reach out to my fellow stammerers and inform them that there are many free resources available from the website of The Stuttering Foundation (www.stammeringhelp.org) for children, adults, and parents.
People all over the world have accessed these free resources from this non-profit charitable organisation. The site offers streaming videos, downloadable brochures and books, and much more.
The Stuttering Foundation is the only organisation for stammerers that has a world outreach, helping stammerers and speech-language pathologists in more than 130 countries each year, mostly in the third world, where resources are lacking.
In this internet era of high-technology, there is no reason why people who stammer in Ireland cannot be helped by these resources, too.
Also, the site has a ‘Celebrity Corner’ with biographical articles on famous stammerers like Rowan Atkinson, Bruce Willis, Marilyn Monroe, and Lewis Carroll.
‘Celebrity Corner’ reflects well upon the Irish diaspora of stammerers, with articles on Irish-American writer, Dominick Dunne, famous Irish-Cuban author, Calvert Casey, and Mancunian Irishman and Oasis guitarist, Noel Gallagher.
‘Safe’ abortions are bloody, too
I read Caoimhe Doyle’s letter in the Irish Examiner (October 14), in which she admits that the ‘vast majority of women who need abortions simply do not believe it is the right time for them to have a child ‘ The solution: Introduce free, safe and legal abortion, safe meaning ‘carried out by trained professionals in line with best medical practice.’
Last week, at the pro-life campaign’s national conference, journalist and filmmaker, Ann McElhinney, recounted testimony from one doctor who carried out many such procedures.
This was from the trial of Kermit Gosling, an abortion doctor now serving life for murder in the US.
The related evidence came from one such trained professional, someone who was called by the prosecution to explain to the jury how ‘safe’ abortions are carried out, yet his testimony read like something from the pages of The Shankhill Butchers.
Maybe such a comparison will be unacceptable as part of the Examiner’s coverage of the abortion issue, but maybe we should acknowledge that the destruction of developing, unborn life doesn’t happen by the waving of a magic wand, and yet the details of the so-called ‘safe’ and legal ‘ procedures are rarely laid before the public . If they were, repeal of the Eighth Amendment might not seem as tempting a prospect.
Killing is not complex
I was much encouraged by the article over the 8th Amendment debate in your newspaper (Irish Examiner, October 15).
It is a good example of balanced journalism, which we seldom see in the media. I was especially impressed by the comments of Cliona Johnson, spokesperson for ‘One Day More’.
What a brave lady. She knew that her son, John Paul, would not survive long, yet there was no question that she or her husband would consider termination, even though their baby lived for only 17 minutes.
She says: “We loved him as long as we could. …But no-one can undo a life and no-one can be protected from grief by initiating death.”
These are profound words, which no mother can ignore.
I hope our government will not cave in to “the murder machine”: i.e. the pro-choice lobby calling for abortion on-demand for Irish mothers.
Abortion is the willful killing of the unborn and nobody can justify the killing of another human being. It is a criminal act. It is not a complex issue at all.
Dismal education record of TDs
It is my understanding, based on unscientific research, that out of the 158 members of Dáil Éireann, not one has a third-level degree in economics. (Accountancy is not equal to a third-level degree in economics, contrary to what is portrayed by some TDs.)
The irony is that the so-called “dismal science” is as far from being a “science” as any discipline, and yet if one listens to unqualified, elected officials discussing economics, one gets the impression that what they say is the “gospel truth.”
A classic example of ignorance of the subject is when elected officials talk about ‘free education’, ‘free health care’ or ‘free housing.’
The second basic principle of economics is TINSTAAFL: ‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’.
