An open letter to John Gormley and Colleagues

Southsider1

Please see below an e mail that was sent to the members of the parliamentary party of the Green Party today. I would ask you all to read it and consider the points it raises and, if you feel strongly enough, please also e mail it to the Green Party as they have the power to help sort out our current turmoil:

from*************@*****.comtojohn.gormley@oireachtas.ie
ccCiaran.Cuffe@oireachtas.ie,
paul.gogarty@oireachtas.ie,
eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie,
tsargent@greenparty.ie,
airestait@pobail.ie
dateSat, Nov 20, 2010 at 1:41 PMsubjectTragic Funeral Todaymailed-bygmail.com
hide details 1:41 PM (0 minutes ago)

I understand that your secretarial staff are probably opening this e mail and I would respectfully ask you to ensure that the addressee see this.

For the attention of all Green Party T.D.s.

Dear Sirs and Madam,

I appeal to you all to read this e mail in it's entirety and consider, carefully, it's contents.

To introduce myself, I am a 41 year old male businessman and live in the south of the country. I have just returned from the funeral of Mr John Butler in Cobh this morning. I attended the tragic and heart breaking funeral of his daughters yesterday. This man's devestating actions were driven by sheer desperation and stress caused by the current economic climate which, either directly or indirectly, was caused by the actions and inactions of our current Government. This man had his back to the wall, so to speak, as he felt he was no longer able to provide for his family and his sheer desperation drove him to take the awful step of ending the lives of his two beautiful daughters and himself. A consequence of this is that he has devestated the lives of many of his extended family and friends.

I am sure you are aware that the collapse of some major construction companies in recent weeks has driven many people with small businesses to the brink and I am sure that unless some serious action is taken immediately we will see repeats of the last weeks tragedy in Co. Cork. As you six people have the immense power to stop this now I appeal, nay I beg you to do the right thing TODAY and withdraw your support from the Government. This is a very serious move on my part as I and my forefathers have been staunch Fianna Fáil supporters all our lives. I have never begged anyone to do anything before but I beg you now to call a halt to this charade. We, as a nation, are in serious trouble and it calls for serious action from strong people. In the name of the late little Zoe and Ella Butler and their father John, I beg you to put a stop to this madness. Please let us as a nation have a say in the future. Please let us have an election so that we may give a democratic mandate to you all to try and sort out our troubles. Please do not let another family be torn asunder by this economic nightmare. The time has long passed to forget party politics and power struggles. Lives are now being lost as a result of your continued support and I appeal for you to please stop now. Please be big enough that the current administration cannot fix this situation and be big enough to allow change. It will, I'm sure, benefit the Green Party in the long run as you will be remembered as the party who stopped the rot.

This has been very hard for me to write and to articulate myself properly because of the despair I feel for the poor family bereaved and for our dear country added to the fact that, luckily, I have never had to appeal or beg for anything in my life.

Yours sincerely,

****** ****

Humans eh!

Southsider1 wrote: »

Please see below an e mail that was sent to the members of the parliamentary party of the Green Party today. I would ask you all to read it and consider the points it raises and, if you feel strongly enough, please also e mail it to the Green Party as they have the power to help sort out our current turmoil:

An eloquent post borne out of tragedy. And sadly highlighting the stark reality that this country needs radical and swift action to correct a grave situation. Every member of boards.ie who agrees should email a copy of this to the greens now.

stepbar

Such a pile of rubbish. How dare he use the dead to advance that sort of nonsense. Leave those kids out of it. By all means complain / protest do whatever. Those kids do not have a voice anymore and don't deserve to be brought into that plea.

Southsider1

stepbar wrote: »

Those kids do not have a voice anymore and don't deserve to be brought into that plea.

They didn't have a say before either. Tragically, now, they never will...

baldbear

"This man's devestating actions were driven by sheer desperation and stress caused by the current economic climate which, either directly or indirectly, was caused by the actions and inactions of our current Government."

Pathetic. Whoever wrote that letter blaming this governments failings on these kids deaths is wrong. The person whot wrote this letter stated they are a businessman, so i think he wrote this letter for his own selfish reasons.

paulaa

Politicians need to be told the consequences of their incompetence and corruption. They have been protected and cosseted for too long and have absolutely no idea of what they have done to ordinary people's lives.

Suicide numbers are growing because of the stress and hopelessness that many feel. There are many families and children suffering today because their father, mother, brother has been driven to drastic actions like this.

It's way past time to bring these politicians into the real world and let them see the devastation they have caused. If only 1 of these people acknowledged this fact maybe those lost lives won't have been in vein.

stepbar

Southsider1 wrote: »

They didn't have a say before either. Tragically, now, they never will...

What galls me even more is that the writer tries to play the sympathy cards by suggesting that Mr Butler had no choice in the matter. Well sorry, anyone that kills their own kids doesn't deserve to be used as a sympathy card. Mr Butler had lots of choices, the most important being the choice to leave his kids alone.

Southsider1

stepbar wrote: »

What galls me even more is that the writer tries to play the sympathy cards by suggesting that Mr Butler had no choice in the matter. Well sorry, anyone that kills their own kids doesn't deserve to be used as a sympathy card. Mr Butler had lots of choices, the most important being the choice to leave his kids alone.

You have obviously never been in that deep dark place where, yes, there may be ways out... But you as an individual cannot see them. Bear in mind that, as a self employed person, he was not entitked to welfare assistance. Are you qualified to judge his actions? I am not but by God I feel so bad for that family as, it seems the writer of the letter does. They were not actions of a rational person.

stepbar

paulaa wrote: »

Politicians need to be told the consequences of their incompetence and corruption. They have been protected and cosseted for too long and have absolutely no idea of what they have done to ordinary people's lives.

Suicide numbers are growing because of the stress and hopelessness that many feel. There are many families and children suffering today because their father, mother, brother has been driven to drastic actions like this.

It's way past time to bring these politicians into the real world and let them see the devastation they have caused. If only 1 of these people acknowledged this fact maybe those lost lives won't have been in vein.

The Government are responsible for running the nation. But ultimatly People are PERSONALLY RESPONCIBLE for their own lives. The quicker people realise this the quicker we will get out of this mess. We have too many people waiting for the Government to do something.

Southsider1

stepbar wrote: »

The Government are responsible for running the nation. But ultimatly People are PERSONALLY RESPONCIBLE for their own lives. The quicker people realise this the quicker we will get out of this mess. We have too many people waiting for the Government to do something.

You're, obviously, qualified to judge this tragic man and his actions. I am not.

paulaa

stepbar wrote: »

The Government are responsible for running the nation. But ultimatly People are PERSONALLY RESPONCIBLE for their own lives. The quicker people realise this the quicker we will get out of this mess. We have too many people waiting for the Government to do something.

Have you forgotten that is what a government is elected to do, look after all it's people to the best of it's ability, not just it's pals. This crowd failed miserably in their duty. Where is their sense of responsibility ? I don't see too many of them showing signs of stress and as I said, it's because they have been shielded from reality for far too long imo.

It will be a long time before we're out of this mess and it won't be the government who solves it. It's now out of their hands

You obviously have no idea what stress or depression can do to someone's mind. As Southsider1 said there is no rationality in a tormented mind.

stepbar

Southsider1 wrote: »

You have obviously never been in that deep dark place where, yes, there may be ways out... But you as an individual cannot see them. Bear in mind that, as a self employed person, he was not entitked to welfare assistance. Are you qualified to judge his actions? I am not but by God I feel so bad for that family as, it seems the writer of the letter does. They were not actions of a rational person.

What would you know where I have been or not been in life? Let me tell you one thing I know exactly what it's like to be depressed and swim in a pile of debt. That's about as far as the sympathy goes. Any man / woman who kills their kids does not deserve to be used as an example. I couldn't give a fiddlers what an individual does to him/herself but to bring others is the ultimate sick act. Those kids didn't volenteer themselves to die. I mean what the fcuk is wrong with people when it's socially ok to for individuals to take the lives of others because they feel they have no hope themselves. Recession or no recession it's not right. As I've said individuals are responsible for their own actions. To bring others along (as per the case above) is the ultimate sick act and should not be sympathised.

Joey the lips

I have to say this is the biggest pile of rubbish i have ever come to read. I think it a disgrace that the op has tried to link these tragic events to the economy.

You take the economy out of this and what you get is a man has killed his two kids.

I dont care who you are this is not normal and it should not be discussed in politics.

This is a disgrace I am annoyed horrified and disgusted that these kids died and i am disgusted at the op for penning an "open letter" that tries to explain it.

I gather your going for a career in politics....

You wont have my vote...

Scofflaw

Leaving aside the question of whether anybody has the right to use personal tragedy as a political card, particularly someone else's personal tragedy, this is fundamentally a petition request.

moderately,
Scofflaw