Galway Advertiser 1998/1998_09_17/GA_17091998_E1_014.pdf 

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Comment & Letters

'A p l u r a l i s t parliament for a pluralist people'

If I w r Clinton, here's w a I'd s ee ht
found herself in an impossible position. This was made worse by Dear Editor, I am delighted to see that the Galway Advertiser has the Kenneth Starr's crude efforts to intimidate Ms Lewinsky, threat sophistication and maturity lo view President Clinton's private ening her with prison if she refused to co operate. If I have suf life - however deplorable some might think it to be - as something fered, my suffering can be nothing compared to that of this young that should have been concern of the First Lady, the I irst woman, and 1 sincerely regret that her involvement with me has Daughter, and Monica Lewinsky, and most emphatically not the placed her in what any fair-minded person must see as an impos concern of a government special prosecutor, who was engaged to sible position. The main charge brought against me in the report is that I have investigate alleged wrong-doings in a property deal and not the lied and perjured myself. You cannot conceive of the sense of per state and nature of the Presidential marriage. In my intense frustration and irritation at the extraordinary out sonal shame and distress these charges have caused me Why? break of this McCarthyite witch-hunt, 1 tried to imagine myself Because they are correct. Because I did lie and 1 did perjure into Clinton's shoes and what I would say if all this were hap myself. But nothing is ever as simple as it appears. pening to me. Bill, if you're reading this, this one's for you. Let me talk straight to you tonight. And let me begin with a few 'My Fellow Americans: 'home truths' about human nature. I do not say they are admirable In recent days the published result of the investigation begun truths, but 1 would maintain they are realistic truths. almost four years ago by Mr Kenneth Starr, was delivered to the Sex makes people do things they would never otherwise do Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. Most of unless under its influence. This includes - it may be regrettable you have by now had an opportunity to examine this lengthy but it is nonetheless true - presidents, kings, princes and princess report. es no less than the ordinary man and woman in the street. Sex I fully acknowledge that it does not make very edifying read makes people a bit crazy. ing, and I deeply and sincerely regret that what should have Everybody lies about sex, especially in their own case, and remained a private matter between my wife and I has have been especially if to tell the truth is going to damage other people. Or, shamelessly and quite unnecessarily exploited by the special let's be frank, themselves in the eyes of others. prosecutor. Nobody's sex life - unless you're talking about celibates And why has he done this? 1 do not claim to be able to look into could stand up to the kind of scrutiny that has been directed at Kenneth Starr's mind, but the suspicion must occur that, after mine. Acts done in private between two consenting adults can costing the taxpayers somewhere in theregionof $4million, and easily be made to sound pornographic or even perverted when set failing to unearth any financial wrongdoing by either myself or down in cold print between the pages of an official report. This I my wife in the Whitewater, or Travelgate, or Filegate affairs - accuse Kenneth Starr of doing, and I accuse him of doing it delib which, allow me toremindyou, were both thereasonshe was erately and gratuitously. It has beenreportedto me that during Ms appointed special prosecutor in the first place - he quite naturally Lewinsky's first appearance before the special prosecutor she wis felt he had to justify this enormous expense in some way. extremelyreluctantto go into detail, and that it was Kenneth Starr I put it to you that it was both a needlessly hurtful and a very who urged her to do so. It has also beenreportedto me that as the dangerous way to conduct any kind of investigation. I believe, for voluminous report was being assembled it was Kenneth Starr example, that historians of the next century will gasp with aston who, once again, urged his staff leave nothing out. I ask you, is ishment at the incredible tastelessness of recording and then pub this the proper way for an independent special prosecutor to pro lishing the opinion of Ms Lewinsky as to the state of the presi ceed? dential marriage. I would like the special prosecutor to explain to If, after having been charged and tried by Congress for having me why he felt it was necessary to include such inappropriate engaged in serious financial impropriety, either as president or material in a document examining alleged wrong-doing in the previously as governor, I might still be tempted to appeal, but at Whitewater affair? least I would have been charged with and tried for what everyone I have already gone onrecordseveral times as apologising to would recognise as falling under the impeachment sanction of Ms Lewinsky and the American people for what Irecogniseand 'high crimes and misdemenours'. accept to be my deplorable behaviour. I should not have done But I cannot accept that a private affair, no matter how sordid what I did, and I deeplyregretthe hurt caused to all those affect it has been made to look, presents any grounds for impeachment ed by my activities. or provides anyreasonwhy I shouldresignthe presidency. But once more I state my strong conviction that this was a pri Kenneth Starr has, by his partisan handling of this investiga vate matter, and ought to have been left as such. My wife, my tion, done an enormous disservice to this nation and lo the entire daughter and those dearest to me have been badly hurt. It is unde world. It is said that the office of president is greater than any man niable that my actions have caused this hurt But the pain has been who holds it In theory this is correct; in practice, however, the made much worse as the result of Kenneth Starr's decision to con world does not deal with an office but with a man. duct a kind of nation-wide matrimonial inquiry with a tenacity By his unrelenting pursuit of any and every rumour, by his and an appearance of partisanship that would not have disgraced unwarranted intrusion into private lives, with the clear awareness the judges who presided over the famous Salem witchcraft trials that, given the very wide powers that go with his position, he had in Massachusetts almost four hundred years ago. it in his power to limit this investigation to its original targets, that And now let me say a word about the way Ms Lewinsky has is Whitewater, Travelgate and Filegate; and by his decision to been treated. Initiallyreluctantto cause me embarrassment, it was focus on the details of the presidential marriage and its difficult"' not until her private phone conversations had been surreptitious ties; by his apparently complete indifference to the effect of all lyrecordedby a supposed 'friend', who then told Ms Lewinsky this on the standing of the United States at a very difficulttimein that she was handing them over to the special prosecutor that she the history of this planet - in all these ways, and more, he has per formed a greater service for the enemies of the United States than a dozen Saddam Husseins. Therefore, I am instructing the Attorney General of the United States to arrest Kenneth Starr on charges of high treason to the United States. Goodnight, and God bless you." Dear Editor, Boy, that'd show him! In response to a letter published in your paper last week, I would like to wholeheartedly endorse the views of my fellow Yours sincerely, 'Secondary Colours' Young Fine Gael member, Neal McNes. The degeneration of our civic, social and essentially decent values on the increasingly T H I S WEEK. seedy streets of our city will continue until firm and prompt action is taken. Last week myself and some like-minded friends, purely in the interests of the public good, purchased a bottle of cheap sherry each from one of our city's ubiquitous off-licences, and proceed ed to drink this alcohol publicly (and, I might add, illegally) down by the Spanish Arch. Not once were the forces of law and order in evidence, despite our simulated raucousness. This surely is a damning indictment of the city council and the authorities entrusted with enforcing their laws. Yours etc,

D

id any of us ever imagine we'd hear these words spoken by the leader of the Ulster Unionist party, addressing an elected assembly that includes members of Sinn Fein alongside other Protestant and Nationalist deputies? Even five years ago it would have seemed inconceivable that the leader of the Ulster Unionists would sit down for cordial face-to-face discussions with the leader of Sinn Fein. Or that any kind of elected Northern Ireland assembly would have been tolerated by Nationalists, with all the bad dreams of the old Stormont haunting them. Or that the first minister of a democratically elected Northern Ireland assembly would have at his side as second minister a Nationalist. David Trimble, the Northern assembly's First Minister, got off to a rocky start as suc cessor to James Mullinaux, a decent man but a politician whose roots were deeply embed ded in the Orange loyalism of the past. Trimble, a university professor and contemporary of President McAleese at Queen's College Belfast, found himself virtually obliged to iden tify himself with the 'No surrender' neanderthals, and he very nearly destroyed any possi bility of understanding with the Nationalist people of the North during the inital Drumcree march. But those who knew Trimble at close range pointed out from the beginning that he was an intelligent, reasonable man, cautious, but certainly not the narrow-minded bigot his association with Drumcree made him out to be. Nor is he one of those instandy charismatic figures like Gerry Adams. But this may be no bad thing. Charisma in Northern Ireland is a Utile like unstable gelignite. David Trimble gives the impression of solidity, of a decent, thoughtful man feeling his way in a radically new situation. And so far he has given strong andreassuringevidence of being able to envisage a decisive shift from old-style Ulster Unionism. This was very significantly evident in his opening remarks to the new Northern assem bly. As the title of a well-known book of quotations drawn from Irish history puts it, "Phrases make history here"; and there can be little doubt that when he said he wanted to create "a pluralist parliament for a pluralist people", he wasringingthe changes on the old definition of Stormont as "a protestant parliament for a protestant people". That David Trimble is able torewordone of the most hallowed shibboleths of Ulster loyalism gives out a clear signal that things will never be the same again. "May you live in interesting times" goes an old Chinese maxim. The people of this island certainly live in interesting times as the final years of this century roll away, and there is something comforting in the realisa tion that it is men like David Trimble who have their hand on the tiller.

Stop t h e s l a u g h t e r o n I r i s h roads

T

here are few things as depressing as the regularity with which Irish news broadcasts conclude with yet another report of a fatal accident on one of this country's roads. And there can be nothing so heartbreaking as the shock and despair that descends upon households up and down Ireland when the identity or identities of the latest victim or victims of our highway carnage is communicated to parents, spouses, children, relations or friends. Shock, despair and another totally understandablereaction,afierceanger. Anger at the stupidity, recklessness and terrible irresponsibility of those who have caused the unneces sary killings that blight our roads and devastate families. The plain fact is, we Irish are often careless and reckless motorists. And if you don't believe that, then you are driving with blinkers on. Everyone can tell their own stories: the car that overtakes you in the fast lane doing lOOmph; the idiocy of trying to overtake two, three and even four cars on a busy highway full of curves and bends; the use of the hard shoulder as a driving and - what is even more deadly - a passing lane; the impatient driver who rides the bumper of the car in front of him; turning off or on to a highway without using turning signals or using them at the very last moment; driving too fast in bad weather conditions; and, of course, that old reliable: driving while under the influence of alcohol. The last ten days or so have been a bad time for the unfortunate victims of our killer motorists. The terrible images of smashed and twisted cars, skid marks silendy symbolis ing the last desperate efforts to avert a deadly crash, and the awful sight of bodies being cut from crumpled seats havefilledour television screens, it seems, night after night It must stop. How? That's a difficult one, but surely existing measures and safeguards could in the short term be enforced with a vigour that only seems to make its impact dur ing the run-uptoChristmas. Random but continuing breath tests; random but persistent checking of tires, turn signals, brakes; more radar guns and instant follow-up of lawbreak ers; points deducted for traffic violations in the spirit of zero tolerance; heavierfinesfor reckless driving; suspension of licences after drink-driving convictions, with no appealtightening up on the ease with which provisional licence holders can take to the roads (in the United States, for example, a provisional licence means only that you can drive if a licenced driver accompanies you), and which roads they may drive on (for example, proviswoal dnvers are not supposed to use the Dublin bypass, but hwv many of us know quite well that not only is such a law flouted regularly but is also rarely policed). You wtli never be able to legislate against stupidity, as one government minister said last week, but you cm certainly make it more difficult for the stupidity andrecklessnessof dan gerous dnvm go unpunished. The Christmas ami-drinking campaign has enjoyed noobte success; why not keep the pressure on all year'- Too many innocent people h a ^ ^otethrt is ume to stop the slaughter
to

The seedy streets of our city

Malachi Nelligan Jnr, Fort Lorenzo Editor's comment: While we applaud the civic mindedness evi dent in this letter, we do wonder if the consumption of an entire bottle of cheap sherry in what presumably was a rather short period of time was a wise move. Can Mr Nelligan Jnr be so cer tain that the 'raucousness' he refers to was truly 'simulated'. Was it necessary for the exercise to display such verisimilitude' In the words of the late Lord Olivier to the method-acting Dostin Hoffman, '"Could you not simply act?"

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