Madam, - I found Lisa Hawkins's letter in yesterday's edition, detailing the begrudging response of some of her neighbours to her collection for the New Orleans disaster victims, very interesting in the light of the remarks by John O'Shea of Goal on Morning Ireland. Mr O'Shea apparently believes that money sent to alleviate the suffering of Hurricane Katrina victims would be better put to use in Africa through the hands of his own organisation; some of Ms Hawkins's neighbours apparently believe that aid to US citizens is solely the job of other US citizens.
As a dual Irish-American national I have a mixed response to this sour-faced stinginess. As an American I am horrified by the ham-handedness and lack of empathy displayed by the White House in response to the Katrina disaster. However, here in Ireland I smell the stench of revenge from those who disagree with the Iraq war and the general aims of the Bush administration. But the poorest of the poor and the mentally and physically frail who were abandoned in the wake of the flood are as much the victims of the uncaring, ideal-minded, anti-pragmatic US administration as any innocent citizen of Iraq. To withhold aid to the victims of Katrina because of anti-American sentiments is to punish the downtrodden of the American system.
As an Irish national I am deeply embarrassed by the mean-spiritedness displayed by John O'Shea. We in Ireland have been quick to take whatever America has to offer for our own benefit. To pull back the hand of friendship from some of its poorest and neediest citizens at this time belies an undercurrent of resentment at being in some ways "under compliment" to the US and is a classic display of the worst of Irish begrudgery rather than the generosity for which the Irish people are known.
Denying money to hurricane victims through the Red Cross should not be placed in the same category as anti-war demonstrations or plane-bashing at Shannon. To endorse deliberately withholding such aid is to deny compassion, and our shared humanity, in the name of a twisted "political correctness".
Mr O'Shea says the Irish Government should have "offered advice" in place of money. Oh, really? Based on Ireland's extensive experience of hurricane damage and mass evacuations, I suppose? - Yours, etc,
CAROL CARTY,
Rowanbyrn,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Madam, - Alan McPartland's claim that "America is a low-tax economy" (September 6th) makes me wonder if he has ever been in formal employment in the United States.
While the headline rate of federal income tax is low, US residents find that their paychecks are noticeably reduced by state taxes, social security and a bewildering array of other government-related deductions.
In practice many Americans find themselves paying rates of taxes that would be broadly similar to those an Irish person would pay. The issue here is not, as some letter-writers have bizarrely suggested, that the US has a laissez-faire economy where the government acknowledges no obligations to the people, but that US taxpayers have paid many billions of dollars over many years in the expectation that they would be helped when faced with a crisis such as Katrina and that when the crisis erupted the government did virtually nothing for three days.
Blame for this fiasco may start at the White House but it also needs to be applied to Congress, which has absolute control of federal spending, and the various state and local governments involved, which knew the problems better than anyone. - Yours, etc,
DAVID ROLFE,
Leinster Road,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - Surely Martyn Turner's cartoon of September 1st, seeming to ascribe culpability for the New Orleans disaster to George Bush, has reached a new low in insensitivity and ignorance. An apology is due to Mr Bush, President of the United States. - Yours, etc,
JOHN P DUGGAN,
Cedarmount Road,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.