What is the point of living in a Democracy?

Letters to the Seanad Éireann candidates

In Ireland we have the Government, and we also have the Seanad (Senate). The Seanad is supposed to keep the Government on their toes, which in essence, they didn’t, as they just went along with whatever the Government wanted to do. Namely, the covid emergency legislation.

There are 3 seats on the Seanad for Trinity College, and I am alumni so I get to vote. As reluctant as I was to even think about voting for anybody after the last 2 years, I thought that I should at least make the effort. So I wanted to ask the candidates where they stood on an issue that is very important to me.

Out of the 17 candidates for the Seanad Éireann Trinity seat, only 6 of them had email contact addresses available to me via the Trinity Website. So that’s 11 of them out. I contacted the remaining 6 with the following email:

Dear XXX,
I’m looking at the candidates for the upcoming Seanad Election and I only have one question I want answered before I choose who to vote for.
Where do you stand on the issue of human rights when it comes to medical apartheid and ‘my body my choice”?  I ask this specifically in relation to Covid Vaccinations.
I await your response,
Abby Wynne

48 hours later I have only heard back from 3 of them. One of them sent me this:

Hi Abby,
I am pro-vaccination but do not agree with vaccine mandates.
Is there more specific question I'd be happy to answer.

Well, actually yes, there is. So I wrote back:

Thanks for getting back to me.
I am deeply spiritual and have a vocation, but spirituality seems to have no weight when it comes to discrimination.  The hypocrisy of the ‘my body my choice’ movement has deeply upset me. I stand for choice, I myself would never have an abortion but I would not stop someone else having one, nor would I condemn them for it. I would expect to be respected equally for my choice not to be vaccinated, or not to vaccinate my children. I would have expected not to be penalised for that choice.
That’s the deeper issue here. Whether the vaccine worked or not is irrelevant. Hypocrisy in the name of the common good is not acceptable. With no apology for the vilification, for the bullying and coercion, the media now is pretending that they did not attack a group of people and turn them into the enemy. I feel it still, this venom and hate that was manufactured out of fear, to control and manipulate the general public.
I received no response from government ministers when I wrote to them about my spiritual issue. I wrote again, this time with references around vaccine safety, quoting relevant and solid scientific research, asking whether we truly had informed consent, asking if not having informed consent was a breach of our constitution, and I received an acknowledgement of my letter and a case number which has been totally ignored. I realise this is because there was truth in my letter and it was easier for them to brush it under the carpet.
I see the WHO is spending a great deal of money to bring in digital vaccine passports, so there will be another vaccine on the horizon. And my question is - would you stand by my right to choose? Would you vote to pass more legislation which would strip away my rights to choose what I put into my own body with the threats of being punished for it?
Thank you for getting me to articulate this. As you can probably tell I am still deeply upset about how I’ve been treated, me personally, and I am also deeply upset for the others that have also been hurt by this situation. I will never forget it, and I would do anything in my power to ensure that it never happens again. Especially for the sake of my children.
In this land of Ireland I would have thought that the President would stand by his word and not allow for discrimination of any kind. His words. He let me down. The Government has let me down. I didn’t want to vote ever again. But here I am, because if I don’t, then what is the point of living in a democracy.
Yours sincerely,
Abby Wynne

So. This is my strategy from now on. Because I am also alumni of the National University of Ireland, I get to vote on that election too. And of course, the Government elections, also. I will write to every single candidate and ask them this very question before I decide who I will be voting for. And I will have it in writing who said what to me. And I will hold them to it. And that’s probably all I can do.

He just wrote back, just before I publish this. Here’s his response:

Yes, I will stand by the right to make personal decisions re vaccines without mandates.
As I said we disagree re the particular merits of the last vaccine. However I am sorry to hear that you felt as you did.
Thanks for your detailed email it helps me to understand the issue more.
Regards
XXX

and here is my reply:

Thank you for listening and respecting my views. That’s all that I want! You will have my vote.
Have a good day,
Abby