Madam, – The begrudgers are well and truly still with us, to judge from Robin O’Malley’s cynical and mean-minded diatribe today (Letters, January 20th) re the new president of the United States.
No indeed, Barack Obama is no Messiah come to deliver his people from bondage, nor Saviour who is going to turn water into wine, and from his many public utterances, no one knows that better than his own realist, down-to-earth self.
But he is a young man of intellectual brilliance, boundless energy and charismatic leadership qualities, who has given not alone to the US but to the whole world, reason to hope for a better and a fairer future, and that alone is quite something in a world that seems to have lost its way. Whether he succeeds in the enormous task that lies ahead,- only time will tell.
And yes – it was right and proper that his fascinating story was serialised, to give the public a rare insight into the making of a president. – Yours,
VERA HUGHES,
Moate,
Co Westmeath.
Madam, – A significant omission in President Obama’s inaugural speech suggests, alas, that there is no fundamental change in American cultural awareness. For all his warm inclusiveness, he failed to mention the Native Americans. It is, after all, their philosophy, held on to through generations of legitimised oppression and near-extermination, that has now resurfaced in the President’s warning against “consuming the world’s resources without regard to effect”. – Yours, etc,