Letters

A Bush Campaigner

I AM campaigning for President Bush and making friends and enemies along the way. 

I like the President. He promotes a culture of life. So does His Holiness. Blessed Mother Teresa said, “The death of a child at the hands of his mother is the path to destruction.” The American Life League says, “You can’t be both Catholic and pro-abortion.” 

What about it, Democratic candidate? What about it Senator Kennedy? What about it Governor Pataki? What about it Catholic voter? 

Re-elect President Bush. That other guy is a lightweight. 

Maura McGee McMahon

New York, New York

Next Stop Riyadh

AFTER reading the letter “Ungrateful Irish Should Leave” by Ben Halloran in the October 6-12 issue, I can’t help thinking that the Irish Voice should publish a special section so Irish Americans like Mr. Halloran can tell people to leave the U.S.

Let’s see — Ben supports a president who told lies to send young boys to war. When it was Bush’s turn to fight he couldn’t even be bothered to take a medical exam.

This president said he would get bin Laden, but while my friend was digging for his brother at Ground Zero, Bush was having dinner with the Saudi ambassador, no doubt promising to protect the Saudis by keeping secret the 28-page report on Saudi involvement.

There’s a plane leaving for Saudi Arabia tonight. Why doesn’t Ben Halloran get on it, and take his Saudi-loving president with him?

Robert A. Schauder

Flushing, New York

Vote Out Abortion

YOUR editorial attack on Catholic bishops (“Bishops Are Wrong,” October 13-19) as right wing zealots is laughable, a mix of fantasy and hysteria. Over the years at Sunday Mass (Chicago Archdiocese), I have repeatedly heard America attacked for economic policies, racism and militarism.

Never once have I heard a word of criticism of elected Catholic officials whose active cooperation has permitted abortion mills to carry on their brutal slaughter of the innocent. If a few members of the hierarchy are finally beginning to develop a touch of backbone, faithful Catholics can only say Thanks Be to God.

The same Irish Voice issue reported high percentages in Ireland both of illegitimate births and support for John Kerry. The correlation is obvious, and prompts me publicly, if belatedly, to thank my father for having nearly a century ago caught that boat.

Let us pray to end abortion, and vote accordingly. We are all accountable.

Tom Mahoney

Buffalo Grove, Illinois

The Sinful Vote

IN the Irish Voice editorial “Bishops Are Wrong” in the October 13-19 issue, on those bishops who hold that voting for Senator John Kerry would be sinful, you correctly state that abortions decreased during the eight years of the Clinton administration. 

While you attribute the decrease to education, perhaps one ought to also consider what was then a strong economy and has since been savaged by President George W. Bush. 

Repeating that “our economy is strong” does not make it so. The desperation that will be inflicted upon us by four more years of the same will likely result in more abortions. 

Could it be that the bishops are not as concerned with preventing abortions as much as they are with hearing pious platitudes from the occupant of the White House? 

In a parable, Christ spoke of two sons given work by their father. The first refused and did it anyway. The second agreed but just didn’t bother to lift a finger. It is the former one who did the father’s will. (Matthew 21: 28-32). 

However, the bishops themselves have earlier proved that their opposition to abortion is not absolute. Although former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Governor George Pataki are both Catholic and support legal abortion, the Catholic hierarchy says nothing. 

These two gentlemen are Republicans. So, if we are to follow the bishops’ guidance here, we can conclude that voting for a pro-abortion candidate is not itself a sin, unless the candidate is a Democrat. 

When George W. Bush was asked whether he relied on his father for help and advice, he answered that he relied on the guidance of “another father.” This reply may have impressed some bishops. 

I, however, am not impressed insofar as Jesus Himself explains just who Bush’s “other father” really is. Liars, He tells us, are the children of Satan, because the devil is the father of lies. (John 8: 44). 

The bishops who teach that voting for Kerry is sinful (and not all bishops do) demonstrate their very shallow and simplistic understanding of current affairs, politics and even the doctrine of their own Church. 

Let me put it to them simply — yes, your Excellencies, a vote for Kerry would be a vote for a candidate who favors legal abortions. A vote for Bush would be a vote for an increase in abortions, and for more wars, for bombing civilians, for torturing POWs, for inflicting radiation sickness on Iraqis and deformities on their unborn children, for bearing false witness, for unwarranted detentions, for conniving with Israel in the destruction of Palestinian homes, for kangaroo court trials in Gitanamo Bay and for worsening the conditions of the poor whom the Lord loves so much. 

As a Christian, my conscience instructs me to make every effort to resist and prevent the unspeakable evil that would result from the election of George W. Bush this November. I truly believe that it would be a grave sin for me to vote for Bush. 

As an American, handing the presidency of my country to a man who usurped it four years ago, who makes every effort to trash the Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights, who tells us that his extended vacations to Crawford are “hard work,” who ignored the pleadings of foreign allies and domestic experts warning that the country was in imminent danger of attack and who remained fixated on a children’s book about a pet goat while nearly 3,000 of my fellow citizens died around me in downtown Manhattan when that attacked occurred, would be an unforgivable act of treason. 

A vote against Bush should not render condemnation from the Catholic hierarchy, but perhaps rather, a plenary indulgence. 

Daithí Mac Lochlainn 

Woodside, New York

Scared of Bush

I HAVE an uncle living in the U.S. Like a lot of his generation, he left Ireland in the 1950s for a better life on the other side of the Atlantic. 

He worked hard, got married and reared a family that any man would be proud of. America gave him a life.

He is now in his 70s and I would like to visit him. However, I am genuinely afraid to do so. I will not visit the U.S. while George W. Bush is president, such is my anxiety. 

In my eyes, Bush and Oliver Cromwell have a lot in common. Both have/had an extreme sense of righteousness, love war and both are/were totally deficient in compassion and understanding.

If Kerry wins, I will be on the first plane out of Clare.

Jim Jackman

Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland