08-13-2018

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Mike J. Carroll

Murphy Village USA

North Augusta, S.C. 29860

mikej.carrollauthor@gmail.com

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The State Newspaper

Rodney Mahone, Publisher

1401 Shop Rd

Columbia, South Carolina 29201.

(803) 255-1371

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Rebuttal: “SC Irish Travelers linked to $1 million murder-for-hire scheme in Texas,”

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Sirs;

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I ask that your newspaper consider my rebuttal for publication.

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American-Irish Travellers: False Condemnation, Guilt by Association, or Racial Bias?

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An article published by The State Newspaper, Columbia, South Carolina, entitled; “SC Irish Travelers linked to $1 million murder-for-hire scheme in Texas,” empresses on the reader that Murphy Village residents are involved in the murder of a sixty-nine-year-old woman. Hate and racism are strong motivators for those who seek to punish an ethnic minority irrespective of truth. Condemnation levied despite there being no relationship either in blood or marriage. Using this definition, anyone is guilty and deserving of punishment if his or her friend commits a crime? Guilt by association, not by act or deed. “If Tuesday’s murder-related charges hold up in court, however, that would represent a significant leap into violence by at least some Travelers or their associates.” I challenge this newspaper to replace Irish-American Traveller with any other ethnic minority and explain to the reader how it is not a racist statement. The word “or” in the context of this indictment seeks to condemn regardless of the outcome. Why would any publication publish an article with the intention to marginalize an insignificant ethnic minority, promote discrimination, intolerance, and racism? This article acknowledges that Irish-American Travellers have no history of murder, yet the narrative induces the reader to find guilt where none exist. Those who long for the days when they freely condemned the Africans, Asians, and Hispanics, desperately seeking another minority to which they can express their bigotry, punish, and promote xenophobia.

 

I am a Roman Catholic and do not condone the murder of anyone, especially a sixty-nine-year-old woman. However, I also cannot tolerate the racist attitude your newspaper continually undertakes toward Irish=American Travellers. Your newspaper’s willingness to use racism and promote hate for no other reason than sensationalism and to increase readership and revenue is disgraceful. It is clear to anyone who reads the narrative of this story that racism is not only the shameful acts of those long ago but lives on in the progenies of the once plantation owners who chained and whipped those they deemed inferior. The words your newspaper used to punish an ethnic minority because an associate is not unlike those chains and whips the South is so infamous for in history. The constant misspelling and simplification of our ethnic name Irish-American Travellers to “Travelers,” a clear attempt to somehow reduce our relevance and significance in society. A newspaper who refuses to correct the wrong spelling of the name of an ethnic minority is no more than a tabloid that seeks only innuendo and gossip? Why would a newspaper who claims to print truth be afraid to let the other side speak? If you seek truth buy my book, entitle; “Irish Travellers: An Undocumented Journey Through History” available on amazon.com. Read about our customs, history, and traditions, or are you afraid to know the ethnic minority you so clearly hate?

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I await your response to my request with skepticism.

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Mike J. Carroll, Irish Traveller