Sir, – T McElligott (September 6th) castigates John Waters for not displaying “much public civic spirit”, having been “16 minutes after the allotted parking time”. It’s the “allotted” element which is the crux of the issue and which Mr McElligott completely overlooks.
Waters, as he elucidates further upon in his superb article (“The ultimate meaning of my Wheatfield adventure”, Opinion, September 6th) decided he had enough of allotted times and bureaucratic dictates and, for the benefit of his own personal integrity, chose to be disobedient. This same principle applies across the board. For example, motorists using Dublin’s M50, already taxed and insured to the hilt, are told they must pay the toll by an “allotted” 8pm the following day or risk what can become a hefty fine. The myth of the “civic spirit” is exposed as completely hollow by the fact that these allotted timeframes benefit nobody except those collecting the generated revenue.
Perhaps some of the 242 citizens jailed (97.5 per cent of these for just a few hours like Waters) last year for non-payment of the TV licence (“Most jailed over TV licence freed within hours”, September 6th) were conscientious objectors who had enough of subsidising a national broadcaster paying fat-cat salaries to its employees?
It could be argued that, in the long run, greater and better civic spirit might result should more of us exercise the courage of our individual convictions and follow John Waters’s example. For civic society is, as he points out, merely the sum of its individual parts and if these parts are individually in a state of turmoil it stands to logical reason that this ultimately affects the whole. – Yours, etc,
JD MANGAN.
Stillorgan Road,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, –You devote 9 x 4 column inches to a "news" article about John Waters spending 45 minutes in jail for not paying a parking fine. I read the article because I assumed i would eventually come across something newsworthy. What a waste of space! No doubt this will not be printed because "The Irish Times receives a large amount . . ." – Yours, etc,
DERMOT FOLEY,
Kimmage Road West,
Dublin 12.