Madam, – I have just driven from the south to the northside of the city this morning and I was appalled not to see one American flag anywhere on my journey. Shopping centres from Blackrock to Clontarf were bereft of flags, promotions of American goods etc. Are we so wrapped up in our own doom and gloom that we cannot celebrate the wonderful occasion of Barack Obama’s inauguration on what must be the most historic day for generations in the country whose people we call our dearest friends and allies? – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The Obama effect is spreading. When you pay for your parking ticket in Dundrum shopping centre, an automated message comes up which reassuringly reads “Change is possible”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Now that President Obama is in office, maybe he will stop the appalling slaughter of people by execution in jails throughout the United States. As a measure of a civilised democracy, this should surely be one he would aspire to achieving. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Patrick Cosgrave’s piece (January 20th) about the inspiration Barack Obama has drawn from 19th century anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass is timely. In his election campaign, Obama never quite used Douglass’s time-honoured quote “Power concedes nothing without demand; it never did and it never will”.
But he did use Douglass’s rhetorical quotes, which were picked up by African Americans in particular, for whom Douglass is an iconic figure.
Douglass arrived in Ireland in 1845 as a refugee from the United States, yet wound up greeted as a hero, sharing platforms with Daniel O’Connell.
Douglass was horrified by the poverty he saw around him in Ireland as the Famine broke out. He stepped outside the limits of the abolitionist cause to proclaim: “I cannot allow myself to be insensible to the wrongs and sufferings of any part of the great family of man. . . I am bound to use my powers for the welfare of the whole human brotherhood”.
This stands in contrast to Obama’s recent silence on the terror inflicted on the people of Gaza by the Israeli armed forces.
If I may be permitted to declare an interest, my play The Cambria, named after the paddlesteamer on which Douglass crossed the Atlantic in 1845, will be presented in the Irish Arts Centre New York from St Patrick’s Day, supported by Culture Ireland, to mark President Obama’s links with Frederick Douglass, and Douglass’s with Ireland.
TG4 will present Camel Productions’ excellent documentary about Douglass’s travels in Ireland, Frederick Douglass agus na Negroes Bána, directed by Dermot McNevin, tonight at 9.30pm. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Barack Obama’s successful rise to the presidency is a political pyramid scheme.
When his limousine oration is exposed as the bumper-sticker rhetoric that it is, and the desperate and the disenfranchised on whose support his pyramid is built try to cash in their emotional investment, the backlash may be severe.
I wish the man well, but I am not buying into the audacity of hype. – Yours, etc,