Letters to the Editor: Morality is to sex education as numeracy is to maths
Any treatment of sex education beyond the physical aspects of reproduction absolutely and inevitably imparts a particular ‘morality’ to children and young people. Picture: iStock
I noted with consternation Jennifer Horgan’s assertion that morality has no place in sex education — Irish Teacher: ‘Morality shouldn’t come into relationship and sex education’ (Irish Examiner, November 11).
Is this not akin to saying literacy has no place in English education or numeracy has no place in Maths?
If Ms Horgan is speaking merely of the physical aspects of reproduction, that is covered in the junior and senior cycle biology course.
Any other treatment of the subject absolutely and inevitably imparts a particular ‘morality’ to children and young people.
Responsible parents have a duty to ensure their children are not taught a sexual ‘morality’ which totally contradicts and negates their own moral values.
A wealth tax, unless set at a very high threshold will disproportionately affect older people who have finished paying for their houses and have been saving for a pension all their lives.
A four-bed house in many locations in Dublin could be currently valued at over €750k, and 40 years of savings could mean a pension worth over €1m.
This sounds like a lot, until you look at the house as a place to live, not an investment, and the older people will have likely lived there for decades, and all their friends will live locally.
Meanwhile that massive-sounding pension, will bring in an annuity of about €40,000 per year, assuming a 50/50 pension with a spouse.
So unless you are asking them to sell up their house and move, they are perhaps less wealthy than it seems.
At the Cop26 summit in Glasgow, Rafael Grossi, head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, argued strongly the case, that if we wish to seek a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, perhaps its now timely to consider the nuclear option.
Interestingly, the Cop26 host city derives75% of its energy from nuclear power.
It is indeed time to engage in a wider debate on the merits of nuclear power.
There are of course safety risks and issues regarding the handling of nuclear waste and the cost of plants, however, there are also significant costs and dangers associated with fossil fuels.
While we would all enjoy living in the utopian world of renewable energy, this is not in any way viable in the near future, given the unreliability of wind and solar.
Adopting the nuclear option would in the long term reduce energy costs and in doing so bring about support for a gradual phasing out of fossil fuels.
Vittorio Bufacchi complains that for covid and climate change “governments around the world are trying to offload their obligations unto us citizens” — ‘Dr Vittorio Bufacchi: The myth of private responsibility laid bare by political philosophy’ (Irish Examiner, November 15).
He has it the wrong way around. Unless we citizens take dramatic steps to stop climate change, we cannot expect our representative governments to take dramatic steps.
Every new LED light you put in, every letter to your TD, every conversation with your friends or complaint to business, every bus journey — that’s how we express ourselves and how we turn things around.
We cannot sit around and moan about what others are not doing, we can only take action ourselves and persuade others to join us.
Every one of us is contributing to the climate disaster, every day. It is up to us to change.
Vittorio Bufacchi’s comment piece would point towards less personal freedoms and more state authority over aspects of our lives, ie, stricter enforcement of Covid measures, and higher taxes which would lead to mean less control over our earned income.
As regards housing, less protection of property rights for the common good.
Maybe we have too much democracy, and a little bit of communism mixed with it may not be a bad thing.
I will preface this letter by saying one thing: I am disabled.
I have chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and rely on a mobility aid to get around Cork city.
Walking for me is painful and I can only do short bursts and have to revert to my motorised aid more often than not.
In the last few months, however, I have become locked out of my own city where I have lived for the past 50-plus years.
The number one cause of me not being able to make my way around the city safely is motorists parking cars on footpaths without fear of punishment.
I am faced by steel barriers each day from ignorant drivers who respond with ‘I will just be a minute’ to more aggressive ‘you can just go around’.
Be it professional or normal drivers, this practice needs to end and needs to be punished through no-nonsense enforcement.
I need my freedom. Give me my footpath free of cars.
Covid certs are not the answer.
I’m fully vaccinated yet the vaccinations don’t seem to be working; most of the adult population is vaccinated yet case numbers are still rising.
We need to live our lives.
Let those that are worried and anxious about Covid do what they need to do to feel safe.
Let everyone else live their lives.
Unfortunately, Covid does not seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
I frankly admire those who refuse to pay tolls, even though I dutifully pay for the few journeys I make along the M50.
I’m tired of being stolen from because I’m a motorist, not a criminal.
Clearly Micheál Martin does not read the polls. Sinn Féin is now at 37% (Sunday Times/B&A).
A number of factors have continued to boost Sinn Féin including the recent decision of President Michael D Higgins not to attend the church event marking the centenary of partition in Armagh.
But the Taoiseach continues to doggedly dig a deeper hole for himself and his party by attending a memorial service in Enniskillen to honour First World War dead.
How many Unionists have ever attended an event to honour the Dublin/Monaghan or Miami Showband massacres? The short answer is none.
An overall majority for Sinn Féin in the next general election now looms increasingly larger. With obsequious leaders like Martin to bolster their recruits is it any wonder?
