Americans no longer live in land of the free
POLITICIANS are elected by the people and then forget them! They should listen to what is being said. Again, this week, we see loud voices being ignored.
In America there were over 600 marches, not individual people, demonstrating against the Trump immigration policy – sorry, that should be the US immigration policy developed by the politicians and supported by the people, but it isn’t.
Several hundred thousand people isn’t even 1% of the population, but with the majority silent or unwilling to speak publicly, this is a loud enough set of voices that should be listened to. The land of the free now seems to be free from a humane approach, and so the people must speak up. DENNIS FITZGERALD,
Melbourne, Australia.
Donald’s hypocrisy
IN 2016, Time Inc filed a motion for the release of secret papers that revealed that Donald Trump employed 200 undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit Teller building on Fifth Avenue in order to make way for Trump Tower.
Just last week, Judge Loretta A. Preska unsealed the documents which revealed not only that Trump did, in fact, employ the Polish workers, but showed he only paid them $4 an hour – less than half the union rate.
The papers also revealed that Trump was forced to pay $1.375million dollars to settle the case. Not bad for a man that says he never settles and who wants no illegal workers in America who steal jobs. Hypocrite is too mild a word to describe him.
MARTIN STRINGER, Barnacogue, Co. Mayo.
Lucky Lowry
MICHAEL Lowry TD inhabits a world where mere mortals don’t get to visit.
He is fined in court and sees it as a victory and a vindication because he was not sent to jail. Michael sees himself as a wronged man, in fact.
Is there no end to the rub-ofthe-green guys like this who enjoy lives blessed with generous friends, or birds of a feather, to be more precise? ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork. THE President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, claims his country ‘has given a lesson in democracy to the entire world’, pointing to an 88% election turnout.
Now what would an 88% turnout look like for Ireland? There would have to be by-location on a scale that would put St Martin de Porres in the shade, in order to fully exploit the mind-boggling double and non-resident entries on the Official Electoral Register.
The dead on our ‘Live’ Electoral Register would also need to rise to the occasion, bringing with them their ‘legitimate’ voting cards !
Clearly it would actually be impossible to have an 80% turnout in Irish elections. Fine Gael, in a submission in 2013 for an elec- toral commission, admitted that the Electoral Register was around 30% inaccurate!
The shocking thing about this is that there has been no judicial inquiry called to review this situation. If there was, it would be clear that holding any election or referendum would be contrary to the ‘one man, one vote’ demanded in our Constitution.
The only answer would be to have the register pegged with the PPS/Revenue numbers digitally compiled centrally; this would eliminate double/non-resident entries. Why is this task not part of the agenda for Government? Could it be that this chaotic arrangement is to the benefit of the politicians ?
The OECD in 2017 ranked Ireland along with Guatemala as the countries with the most inaccuracies and errors in their electoral registers! Are we really a First World democracy? The facts speak for themselves.
NUALA NOLAN, Galway.
Mary’s Church problem
YOU don’t have to have a degree in Freudian psychoanalysis to realise the motivation behind Mary McAleese’s animus towards the Catholic Church. It’s the same reason ‘moderns’ (of all eras) have had a problem with Catholicism.
Essentially, it’s because the Church won’t conform its teachings, particularly relating to human sexuality, to prevailing cultural norms. Without wishing to personalise matters, she has a family member who has chosen a lifestyle at odds with the Church’s time-honoured teachings in this regard. He is not alone.
It is common knowledge that a significant reason for Pope Benedict XVI retiring as Pontiff was due to the existence of a powerful homosexual lobby embedded at the very highest echelons of the Vatican. This is not to focus on one aspect of human sexuality.
The teachings on chastity are equally rejected by many heterosexuals. And no one is claiming the teachings are easy. This is why the Church has the sacrament of Confession: to help us to start afresh after we lapse. The alternative is to wave the white flag and give in to the prevailing culture.
But most studies in this regard, for example of the ’60s sexual revolution, are not encouraging, and reveal a legacy of many ruined lives. In his Ethics, Aristotle said ‘men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives’ – it seems that some things never change.
ERIC CONWAY, by email.