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From: "Brian McConnell" <>
Subject: More on No Surrender
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 18:52:47 -0300

Just received this which may also interest some list members.

Brian



Monday 09 August 1999 17h35 GMT

Below is an interesting letter from today's Belfast Telegraph.

No Surrender - Never Surrender
Frank Harvey


Chance for constructive input


IN VIEW of the great interest shown by some Americans in the affairs of Northern Ireland it is interesting to speculate what the consequences would be if we were to adopt the American Bill of Rights.


The Bill of Rights is a listing of individual rights which were added to the American Constitution in 1791. They form the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

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The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of peaceable assembly and has been interpreted by the courts to safeguard the rights of marchers, providing they are peaceable.

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Some years ago the US Nazi Party decided to march through Skokie, a suburb of Chicago largely inhabited by Jews. The Supreme Court upheld their right to do so and specifically allowed the Nazis to carry Swastika flags.

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The court took the view that the Bill of Rights guarantees the rights of marchers to march, no matter how unpopular their ideas might be, provided they are "peaceable", that is, orderly and disciplined. The opinions of the opponents of a march are irrelevant and the duty of the police force is to uphold the marchers' rights.

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If the First Amendment were to apply in Northern Ireland, the Orangemen would have the right to march at Drumcree and wherever else they wished to march. The opinions of residents' groups would be irrelevant and the police would enforce the right to march. Of course, this would also give republicans the right to march along the Shankill Road or wherever.

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The Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms: The adoption of this amendment would, at a stroke, solve the decommissioning problem. The IRA and the "loyalists" could all retain their weapons and law-abiding individuals could acquire weapons too, thus creating a level playing field.

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Other amendments have been added to the Bill of Rights, including, in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment, which, among other things, guarantees the "equal protection of the law" to all individual citizens.

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This amendment would require that State-mandated preferential treatment/affirmative action schemes be ended and would result in the closing down of the so-called Equality Commission.

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Here, then, is an opportunity for the US to make a constructive contribution: the constitutional rights and liberties enjoyed by citizens of the US to be extended to the people of Northern Ireland.

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PAUL ROWLANDSON,Londonderry.

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