Sir, - Who shot Ms. Guerin? Well in a way we are all implicated. in a well ordered society there should be no need for a crime or security correspondent or at the very least, it should not be a high risk occupation. But we are not nowadays a well ordered people. We are in so many ways still ambiguous about militant violence and have a long history of murdering those whom we perceive to be our enemies. Furthermore the collective good seems to come a poor second compared to the obsessive pursuit of sectional and individual interests that the newspapers and airwaves air for us day after day. The Garda, legal and other related institutions are perpetually starved of resources. As a people we seem to spend half our time complaining about the inequity of government imposed high taxes and the other half railing against the same government for its inadequate response to the outrage or disaster of the moment.
Can I put it this way: let us presume that the Minister for Finance on next budget day stands up and says that instead of the traditional annual extra income tax relief he will on this occasion. and perhaps for some years to come give financial priority to funding resources for fighting crime, drug trafficking and other areas of national disorder. Will the Irish people say: "Well done minister!" Will there be an absence of weasel words from the media condemning "the failure to grasp the nettle of tax reform"? Can we expect opposition politicians to refrain from doing likewise?
This is the real test. Are we serious in coming to terms with fact that we cannot have both lower taxes and comprehensive tackling of the many social ills that cry out for remedy. There are no free solutions.
The choice is ours - it is we who must change - it is our country - the government of the day merely oversees the debits and credits to the common purse. - Yours, etc.,
Grenard Crescent, Salthill, Galway