Dear Madam, - I read Warren Little’s Comment (06.11/14) and I had some strange sense of deja vu. It reminded me of the Southern States of America during the 1960s and the arguments over segregated education there, the same arguments and similar language is being expressed here, typified by Mr. Little’s column.

Back then it was felt entirely right and proper that ‘black’ students should go to ‘black’ schools and ‘white’ students should go to white schools; the idea being it should be ‘separate but equal’, much the same argument is made here.. More moderate proponents of the argument suggested, as Warren Little does now, yes Integration is all fine and dandy, but we should go at the pace demanded by society - also known as the ‘Go Slow’ movement, famously sung about by Nina Simone in her self-penned tune, - Mississippi Goddamn! Because of this ‘Go Slow’ philosophy, integration has almost entirely stalled for much of the Southern States, ghettoization is actually increasing there, which is very worrying.

I wonder, perhaps controversially, if Catholics were black and Protestants white, would we be having the same argument? I fear very much we would. Parental Choice has became a modern sacred cow that one should never challenge, but I have to.

I do believe that for the good of society here, integration should not only be actively supported, but a rapid desegregation of the Apartheid style education system should commence immediately. We will have a continuation of racism and sectarianism in our society and amongst our young people, until everybody is allowed to do things together, most importantly that should be education. Just as people with blue and brown eyes are integrated - along with those with green and grey and all other shades too, integration works for eye-colour, why not for other petty distinctions too. Just because something is ‘historic’, ‘traditional’ and ‘popular’, does not make it the best way of doing things.

Yours faithfully, John Llewellyn James Henry Street, Enniskillen