Sir, - With reference to Paraic O'Donnell's musings (July 14th) on the Adelaide Hospital Society's submission to the Working Group on Abortion, and on my comments thereon (July 9th), I would like to add the following.
Those who wish to provide abortion - the killing of pre-born children - like to disguise the ugly truth from themselves and those they wish to influence. In order to do this they distort and twist language. So abortion becomes "the right to choose", "a medical intervention", "a termination", or "a procedure". Such phraseology is needed to name things without calling up mental images of them, or, in other cases, to create the "right" mental images.
Language properly used is the best "mirror of the mind" (Leibniz), a "mirror of culture" and "guide to Social Reality" (Sapir). It is also a mirror of public debate. The evil geniuses of the 20th century, Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin, knew this, and enslaved their nations from within by their use of language. Words came to mean what the party, or the respective leaders, decided they should mean.
Parallel to the official language of the state was the underground language of those who sought to preserve truth. In the USSR this resided in the great Russian poets Mandelstam, Akmatova, Pasternak, Tsvetayeva, and others.
The forces who seek to introduce the evil of abortion into Ireland have, in fact, lowered the level of debate by being dishonest in their use of language and by hiding behind euphemisms and false medical ethics and theory. A classic example of this misuse and abuse of language is to be found in the Adelaide Hospital Society's submission, and indeed in Mr O'Donnell's own letter. In contrast, Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian, made clear that abortion could never be described otherwise than as murder.
In referring to Youth Defence, Mr O'Donnell has made no serious attempt to identify what motivates this group. I would suggest that what he describes as "the disgusting belligerence" of the group is nothing less than the "saeva indignatio" (fierce indignation) of idealistic youth at those who justify evil by pretending to have compassion for women with a "crisis pregnancy".
The Adelaide Hospital Society claims to be a "Christian charitable organisation". The people who claim to honour God and, at the same time, promote abortion, are not obeying the Ten Commandments. Perhaps it is because they have adopted the "New Commandments" as described by the Northern poet, Robert Greacen, in his latest collection, A Protestant Without a Horse:
1st, No other God exists than Mighty Me;
2nd, Worship the vulgar idols of TV;
3rd, Say "God" when laughing or to be provoking;
4th, No Sunday overtime? You must be joking;
5th, Revile your Dad, break Mother's heart;
6th, Remember murder is a necessary art;
7th, Adultery clearly shows sophistication;
8th, And theft's the hallmark of a clever nation;
9th, False witness leads to increased dividends;
10th, And envy's the prerogative of friends.
- Yours, etc., Cllr Richard Greene,
Roebuck Road, Dublin 14.