Relative to Bush

I WOULD like to reply to John Rogers’ letter “Good vs. Evil” in the November 15-22 issue. Mr. Rogers says I practice something called “relativism,” based on his mind-reading skills.

Here’s a good example of relativism – last week, President George W. Bush finally made it to Vietnam, many years after he skipped out on his National Guard service. He promptly negotiated trade relations with Vietnam.

When he was supposed to be fighting the Vietnamese, they were evil. Now that he can make money off of them, they are not so evil. That’s relativism, because the evil of the Vietnamese is relative to the economic value to President Bush.

Meanwhile, back in Baghdad, Bush has managed to lose a war where the other side’s army surrendered.

Mr. Rogers is mistaken when he says I equate the Islamic jihadist with him in the sense of morality. Actually, I find his mentality to be quite similar to theirs, including his apparent dislike of the modern world.

To put it simply for Mr. Rogers, I don’t think Osama bin Laden and President Bush are equally evil. I think they are equally stupid.

To create an Islamic empire by blowing up the middle of a city is dumb. To create democracy in the Islamic world by putting an occupying army in Iraq is dumber. You win a war by outsmarting your enemy, not by matching the enemy in stupidity.

In November of 1964 I marched in the victory in Vietnam parade on Fifth Avenue in New York. I won’t be fooled again by Bush or by the combination of sophistry and religious rants that Mr. Rogers employs.

The U.S. should get out of Iraq as soon as possible (months, not years.) That is sound military strategy that the recent election shows the majority of Americans favor and support.

My advice to Mr. Rogers is that instead of writing about me in the Irish Voice letters page, he visit VA hospitals so he can see the price of incompetence.

He might also read the “Sermon on the Mount” and remember that his God said to comfort the impoverished, not torture them.

Robert A. Schauder
Flushing, New York

The Real Birthplace

ANYBODY out there proofing the Irish Voice? In the issue of November 8-14, there was a piece on John F. Kennedy Jr.’s friend Billy Noonan and his new book Forever Young, which said that President Kennedy was born in Brooklyn.

What an awful mistake! The president was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917.

How on earth did such a mistake pass your proof readers? Brooklyn and Brookline may sound the same, but they are as different as chalk and cheese. The Irish Voice should know that.

Please take care to ensure that such mistakes do not happen again.

New York has enough to lay claim to. Let us living in Massachusetts have our Kennedys, please!

Denise Murphy
Lenox, Massachusetts

Legal Limit Limbo

I NEVER thought I would live to see the day to hear myself saying it, but here goes — three cheers for your Irish Voice contributor John Spain!

Although I have been very critical of Mr. Spain in the past, I have noticed that of late he has refrained from blaming all of the world’s problems on Sinn Fein and started to address real issues of concern. In the edition of November 15-22, he exposed the problem of the arbitrary harassment of responsible drinkers and the closing down of pubs in small towns and villages all across Ireland.

Now the question I must present here is, what exactly is the legal limit for alcohol in the Republic? Does Irish Voice or any of its readers know?

I have posed this question across Ireland from Dublin to Galway and from Donegal to Cork. I have yet to get an answer. Either no one knows or they give me the meaningless answer, “One pint.”

To this I always respond, “How fast did you drink it, how fast does your body metabolize alcohol and how long ago did you drink it? Was it last week?” When you blow into that tube you must know what the legal limit is for grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath.

I asked Tom Byrne, the proprietor of Byrne’s Pub in Dunmore, Co. Galway, what the legal limit is for drinking and driving in Ireland. He gave me the old one pint response.

I then pulled out my Alcohawk Elite pocket breath analyzer. I have no connection to this company, but use the product because it is sanctioned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and can be returned for regular recalibrations.

I then proceeded to quaff down one pint of Smithwick’s. After finishing off the pint, I joined ranks with my “Pioneer” cousin, only drinking ginger ale and then began to test my alcohol level every five minutes.

After 35 minutes I reached a peak of .04 grams per 210 liters and then began to drop off. At 65 minutes I was back to zero. So much for the one pint claim, I say.

The legal limits in Maryland where I live are as follows — over .05 for DUI and over .08 for DWI. So I was never illegal if I were at home.

Yet we have people going to the pub on a Sunday night in Ireland, getting stopped by Gardai (police) on their way to work the next morning and ending up in jail or losing their driver’s permit. Old folks are driving their tractors into town during the day and buying a six pack to drink at home instead of doing what they really want — socializing with friends at the pub.

The whole thing is out of control. We have no idea if we are being conned because we do not know the limit. Even Mr. Spain falls into the trap of the one, two or three pint limit nonsense.

It would be a great service to Irish Voice readers, residents of the Republic and visitors to Ireland, and if the Irish Voice or John Spain could find the answer to this important question. Ignorance makes it easy for the spread of injustice by authorities both here and abroad.

If Mr. Spain comes up with the results, I’ll give him another three cheers and quaff down yet another quick pint in his honor. Hic!

Martin Ames
Parkton Maryland

Unionist Identity

I WAS fortunate enough to read the Irish Voice on a recent visit to New York. It is, however, unfortunate with reference to the letter “English Empire Over” in last week’s issue that letter writer Tom McTigue appears to think Unionists in the province have no right to an identity and moreover, that he knows our identity better than we do.

Such ill-informed comments show the majority community in Ulster that much education is still needed on this side of the pond!

Alex Strickland
Co. Down, Northern Ireland

Recalling Durkan, O’Dwyer

WHAT a great man we have lost with the passing of Frank Durkan.

I learned so much about the struggles of the people of Ireland from both Frank and Paul O’Dwyer, another man I loved dearly.

I shall remember always the afternoon we spent with Governor Bill Clinton in 1992, talking about how the “Irish question” could become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign. As they say, the rest is history.

They got the ball rolling, and all advocates for peace and justice in a united Ireland should be thankful to Frank Durkan and my idol Paul O’Dwyer.

God bless them both. They are heroes.

Ray Flynn
Boston, Massachusetts

(Flynn is the former mayor of Boston and a former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.)