Galway Advertiser 1993/1993_01_21/GA_21011993_E1_015.pdf 

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C O M M E N T

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L E T T E R S

CLINTON TAKES CHARGE
N Tuesday, in London and not Washington, there occured one of those heavily symbolic events so beloved of political soothsayers and, we should add, leader writers. Madame Tussauds' wax model of George Bush was replaced with one of Bill Clinton. The fact that Madame Tussauds removed Mr. Bush's effigy a day before the real Mr. Bush actually ceased being President lends itself to yet another sym bolic reading - that the world is eager to bid farewell to the old warrior who orchestrated "Desert Storm" and wants to see whether the new man has anything better to offer. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the presidency of the United States had become, unquestionably, the most important leadership position in the world. Mr. Clinton assumes this office at the age of forty-six, the youngest man to achieve the presidency this century, apart from John F. Kennedy, who was forty-three when he became President. And like J.F.K., Mr. Clin ton is a Democrat, the first Democratic President in twelve years. And if Jimmy Carter's presidency, laudable though it was in intention, is regarded as a minor blip that was allowed to happen in the wake of the trauma of Watergate, Mr. Clinton is first Democratic "insider" to gain the highest of fice in the land since Lyndon Johnson. It is fortunate that Mr. Clinton is a young man, and one who has so far demonstrated an impressive ability to survive the shark-infested waters of the American media. For he faces a formidable array of challenges and pro blems that will require decisive action and clear thinking. Both domestically and internationally, the post-communist world is a scary place. While the United States is still seen as the most important global power, the economic balance has shifted dramatically, with Japan and Europe now challenging and even, in the former case, surpassing American claims to global supremacy. Poverty and drug-related crime have played havoc with the fabric of U.S. society, and unemployment, like a dark cloud, obscures the tradi tional optimism of Americans, who have always believed that the next genera tion will enjoy ever higher standards of living. Mr. Clinton will have his work cut out for him in restoring the native sense of confidence that has generated wealth and jobs throughout the country's history. On the global scene Mr. Clinton enters office, inheriting the unsolved problems of Mr. Bush - the continuing threat posed by Saddam Hussein, the civil war raging in the former Yugoslavia, the dangerous instability of Russia, and the equal instability in the Arab world. He also has to deal with the com plexities of Mr. Bush's idea of the United States as a new kind of force for good, as witnessed in the present deployment of troops in Somalia to guarantee the distribution of vital food and medical supplies to that famine-ravaged coun try. President Clinton begins his four-year term of office with an enormous amount of good will. He also begins his presidency with a probably | unrealisable burden of high expectations on the part of the American people. He will have to demonstrate quickly that he is up to the demands that will inevitably be placed on his shoulders. For Mr. Clinton's success or failure as President is a matter of crucial importance not just to the citizens of his own country, but to the entire world.

SEEKING GOD WITHIN
Dear Editor, I was moved by Bernard Naughton's letter in last week's Advertiser. His con cern and the frankness with which he expresses it is another ray of light for those of us who are feeling, hop ing for and manifesting change in this time. There is God and there is hope. God is an infinity of spirit who has existed and will continue to exist through infinity, who is the source of all creativity, who is the life force of all crea tion, whose inspirational creativity never ceases nor ever will cease, who cannot be contained or confined in any limited or finite idea such as a person, place or thing. All creation and each bit of creation individually is a part of God. Let us turn within and seek God in the silence. Alcohol, drugs, sex and materialism will not give us peace. The only real peace is the ease, grace and relax ation of being that comes with knowledge of the one. People's relationship to God and the way they have sought to know and express that relationship has been a burning question (often literally) thoughout the ages. The search for an answer has led to religions and cults which have set themselves up as intermediate stations between God and humankind. We should not underestimate the benefit and the divisions which religions have brought to people. They have at one and the same time provided great comfort to people in need of it, and restricted the freedom of people least like ly to be able to cope with it. They have given answers with great authority, and sheltered people within that authority. That religions have encouraged, often im posed, desirable codes of behaviour between people cannot be denied any more than that they have also im posed penal codes on those not of their persuasion.

O

Freedom of the Press

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XTRA MURAL lectures by the staff of the University College in Galway are not a new phenomenon.

In this week in 1861 the Professor of Geology in what was then the Queen's College, Professor A. G. Melville, was giving a series of lectures on his subject. The lectures were well attended and the local paper commented on the number of ladies who, though excluded from official university courses, were in attendance. Amongst the audience too were pupils of the Model School as well as a goodly number of the general public. The course of lectures was well published and the Galway vindicator carried a report of the contents of each evening's discourse. Obvi ously the professor was arousing great interest in his topic. Then, quite unexpect edly, there was a hitch. The press reporter arrived as usual to the fifth lecture in the series only to be refused a d m i s s i o n . One J a m e s Martyn, according to the paper "slammed the doors in the face of the reporter!' Great umbrage was taken and the paper, in its next issue, made it a question of the liberty of the press in Galway. The right to information and the right to publish were at stake. It was an emotive problem. The paper had given its support to the course of lectures. Indeed they had been invited by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of which James Martyn was President, to raise hinds for the fishermen of the Claddagh and for thenfamilies. The paper was using its columns to publicise the course so as to help that charity. Perhaps the dispute had a beneficial effect. Professor Melville dissociated himself from James Marty n's actions and the course continued to attract large n u m b e r s . Indeed the publicity was probably the reason why the President of Queen's College Galway was present at the remaining lectures of the series.

God is within. God does not dwell solely in a church to be visited on Sundays. We must rid ourselves of our externalist viewpoint and lifestyle. God is an all e m b r a c i n g , twenty-four hour a day business that takes root within and radiates outwardly like a flower opening itself to the heavens. God is joy and peace and is there for every one of us if we choose to open ourselves to the eter nal flow.

Yours, J . Wade Galway Morningstar.

AN ATHEIST'S VIEW WHAT'S THE O.P.W. UP TO?
Dear Editor,
I have been observing the latest O.P.W. plans for an "interpretative centre" in Co. Meath and I can no longer stay quiet. What are Yours, they up to? John Burke As in the case of Mullach Ballybane. Mor, they are wrong! I have a request to make of the O.P.W. Sit down, think about what you're doing and think again.. Can they and children dead in the not see that instead of pro Dear Editor, moting and conserving a Appalled at the news of ruins of civilian buildings.'' These bombing raids wild and unique place of another useless and destruc beauty that they are ruining tive exploitation of the dishonour the role of the what so many countries have United Nations for the Irish Army in United Na tions operations; and we lost - we only have to look benefit of President Bush's around us. vindictive ego, we have hope that many others will Take our bogs, for exam be writing to the Govern written to the Minister for ple. It's only now Europeans Foreign Affairs as follows: ment to say so. have discovered what Yours etc., " D e a r Mr. Spring, they've lost, the mistakes John Arden please dissociate Ireland they've made and the ones Margaretta D'Arcy from the double standards of St. Bridget's Place Lwr, in front of us now - the list the Bush/UN attack upon is endless and my space is Galway. Iraq, which has left women short. If an interpretative centre is to be built, the nearest town would benefit both the town and visitors. the publication of the press There is no problem with in Dear Editor, terpretative centres - it's just Scoil Einde recently ran a release on the event. On behalf of the Parent's where they end up. Think children's Book Fair which was very successful. As a Committee in the school and again! result, the school library has the children, I would like to le mise le meas, thank you for your help. been substantially enhanced T. M a c Seanain Yours faithfully, c/o R T C Students This would not have been so Frances T h o r n t o n (MM successful without the help Scoil Einde Parents Gaillimh. of your newspaper through Association. After all those letters from Christians, New Age Chris tians and so on, I thought you might like a letter from a non-believer, an atheist. WeU,firstofall,Idolive a moral life, but not the kind based on any fear of hell or reward in heaven. I am not irresponsible to myself or others, have never cornmited any atrocities, or even been tempted to, unlike a lot of Christians we read about in h i s t o r y . I am not materialistic, though I have met a lot of nuns and priests that had the greatest respect for anyone who had money. The way I behave has to do with my personality, not whether I believe in any God or not. If Hider was a psychopath, was he not bom that way? Was it God's fault? I do not wish to argue about religion. I believe the fear of death is behind all religion. After a survey in to religion and the occult in America they came to the conclusion that there is no point wasting time arguing about it with anyone, as most people like to think there is something out there, watching over them. If it's not God, then it's flying saucers or the stars.

Dear Editor,

T H E CHALLENGE OF ISLAM

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T is estimated that by the year 2 0 0 0 Islam, already the fastest-growing faith across the globe, will be the largest religious grouping in the world. And yet how little we in the West really know of Islam. Our popular images of the adherents of this faith are, for the most part, not much more than crude caricatures. Yet the countries in which Islam is the major force play an enormous role in the political and social climate of the post-communist world, a role that will come to matter increasingly in the decades ahead. The West is puzzled by the mixed feelings shown by many Arab states towards Saddam Hussein. While many of these states joined in the Coalition that recaptured Kuwait, the reaction towards Mr. Bush's "last hurrah" at tacks on Iraq have been far less supportive. And even moderate Arab states are distressed by the double standards demonstrated in the stringent enforce ment of U.N. resolutions on Iraq and the indifference shown towards the plight of the Palestinian civilians who have been thrust into limbo by the Israelis. The West must begin now to understand Islam, a religion that permeates every corner of its adherents lives in a way that Christianity, for the most part, no longer does for most Christians. How much is taught to our young people about Islam? Is there even one department in any of our universities devoted to dispelling the ignorance about this religion and the importance it has in the world today? The increasingly secular West underestimates, to its cost, the challenge of Islam as we approach the beginning of the third millennium.

DOUBLE STANDARDS

THANKS FOR ASSISTANCE

Thomas P. O'Neill.