Protecting rights of rural dwellers

Sir — Des Guckian (Letters, Sunday Independent, December 10) is right in speaking about protecting the rights of rural dwellers. There is an attempt at reducing important structures such as post offices and so on; the reason seems to be on economic grounds. If that is so, why not reduce the numbers elsewhere and spread the burden on others? The case of a person not being able (or with difficulty) to obtain a site doesn’t sound right. We are all born free with different talents and should treat each other properly.

It is pretty plain what is happening instead: get all you can while you can.

It starts in families, spreading out to affect neighbours, communities etc, but not to all thankfully. The result of this eventually in some cases is serious disruption in the lives of some as in South Sudan, Syria, and Israel etc.

Instead, we should follow the examples of great people such as Julius Nyerere of Tanganyika, chosen by the people when independence came in 1961, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi. Nearer home we have the example of the liberator Daniel O’Connell and plenty of others. We would then have a more contented people and less of disruption of people’s traditional way of life.

I thank Des Guckian for highlighting what is taking place and I hope and pray he’ll have plenty of fair-minded people to support him.

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