In a letter to the News Letter on Saturday (3 December) the writer addressed the 'disgraceful and discriminatory' action of Belfast Lord Mayor Niall O'Donnghaile in refusing to hand over a Duke of Edinburgh Award to a young girl who was a member of the Army Cadets. The letter writer drew an interesting parallel:
Picking and choosing those to be honoured on the basis of political ideology reminds me of Hitler's refusal to present Olympic medals to black athletes in the 1936 Munich Olympic Games. Such totalitarianism has no place in the new Northern Ireland and, unless the prejudice and discrimination meted out by Sinn Fein is challenged, then we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.
The letter writer is slightly wrong I am afraid. It was not just "black" athletes, the German Chancellor refused to hand out medals to non-German athletes. It was not on the grounds of colour. Further to that, the treatment of Jesse Owens by the US President and his refusal to meet him, is far more deplorable.
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