COLUMNIST'S COMMENTS TOUCH OFF FURY
by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
October 26, 2000

DUBLIN, IRELAND--Several groups, from politicians and disability rights
defenders, are sharply criticizing newspaper columnist Mary Ellen Synon's
recent article in which she suggests that the Paralympics should not be
associated with "mainstream" athletic competition.

Many have called for a retraction and an apology from the paper, the
Sunday Independent, and for the newspaper to fire Synon. Some
lawmakers are using the occasion to strengthen support for a news
"review" panel.

The paper has refused to do either, but will be publishing readers' comments
this coming Sunday.

Synon, in a column published October 22, apparently describes the
Paralympics currently underway in Sydney as "grotesque" and "perverse".
Physical competition, she wrote, is about finding "the best", not about
finding "someone who can wobble his way around a track in a wheelchair, or
who can swim from one end of a pool to the other by braille".

"One must question the propaganda that says one ought to applaud the
physical performance of the lame as we applaud the physical performance of
the fit. . . It is part of the propaganda that wants to convince you that
all cultures are equal in value, that all lives are equal in value, that all
philosophies are equal in value."

"Yet we are supposed to imagine that there is some kind of equivalence in
value between what the cripples do and what the truly fastest, strongest,
highest do. There isn't."

Among those who have condemned the article are the Olympic Council of
Ireland, the Irish Sports Council, the Disability Federation of Ireland, the
Irish Wheelchair Association and the Forum of People With Disabilities. Mr.
John Treacy, chief executive of the Irish Sports Council, described Synon's
comments as "appalling".

[Editor's note: After several on-line searches through archives of the
Sunday Independent and the Irish Independent I have not yet found the full
text or a link to Synon's column. I will post a link to such an item once it
is found.-- Dave Reynolds]

More about the public response to Synon's column can be found in this story
from the Irish Independent:
"COLUMNIST'S REMARKS ABOUT PARALYMPICS 'OFFENSIVE'"
http://www.independent.ie/2000/297/d06c.shtml

And from today's Irish Times:
"JOURNALIST'S COMMENTS ARE STRONGLY CRITICISED"
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2000/1026/hom10.htm

Also today, Irish Times writer Kevin Myers defended his friend and colleague
Synon, calling her column an attempt to expose "the myth of egalitarianism"
as one of "the great heresies of our age". "In truth, discrimination is one
of the pillars of civilisation," writes Myers:
"AN IRISHMAN'S DIARY"
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2000/1026/opt4.htm

---
Distributed by:
Dave Reynolds, Editor
Inclusion Daily Express
Disability Rights Email News Service
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