Madam, - Breda O'Brien writes (Opinion, September 13th) that it will probably cause me "some distress" that she agrees with most of my criticisms (September 9th) of her earlier column about Sarah Palin.
On the contrary, I found Ms O'Brien's discussion of ethical consistency around "right-to-life" and "choice" issues engaging and long overdue in the popular press.
I was also pleased to discover that, as Ms O'Brien points out, Governor Palin did not, in fact, cut funding for Alaskan special needs children - nor did she cut funding for pregnant teenagers. These rumours, which were based on a misinterpretation of Governor Palin's line-item vetoes in the 2008 Alaska budget, had been widely reported as fact in the American mainstream press, and I am happy to accept that they were false.
Ms O'Brien goes on to say that Governor Palin's increase in funding for these items over previous years "doesn't fit the Republican stereotype, but people are much more complex than the little boxes we try to stuff them into." As a liberal who often bucks the liberal stereotype, I couldn't agree more. But why, then, did Ms O'Brien feel the need to stereotype me by suggesting that I would be less than pleased with her response to my letter? - Yours, etc,
CAROL STEPHENSON-CARTY, Blackrock, Co Dublin.