It sometimes surprises me how you can work alongside someone for years, socialise with them, talk to them about all sorts of things and yet not know things about them that are probably fundamental to their character. A case in point is a friend of mine who never seemed interested in sport of any kind but who in recent years has been posting stuff about FC St Pauli, a football team from her native Hamburg. Similarly she is now getting quite excited about the UEFA Cup. Who knew that this football fan was hiding inside this quiet person.
Similarly, while I always knew she was left-leaning and that we coincided in our political views, I never had her down as an activist. Then she sort of fell in political love with Jeremy Corbyn and started going to her local Labour Party meetings. And lately she’s been turning out for pro-Palestine demonstrations in Manchester. I feel positively sedentary in comparison.
Here’s one of her latest posts:
"🚨TRIGGER WARNING POLICE BRUTALITY IN MANCHESTER🚨
Yesterday at our peaceful demonstration which we have carried out for nearly 40 WEEKS to stop a literal genocide. Unprovoked Police beat protesters in Manchester for standing against israel's genocide in Gaza and demanding the freedom of thousands of tortured Palestinian political prisoners.
Police used reckless violence against the elderly and children present at the demonstration. During Israel's genocide that has murdered 16000 Gaza children the horror from the police against this protest shows their desperation to support Israel's horror in Gaza."
This is getting a little close to home. And these are not student protest demonstrations but groups of protestors of all ages.
We’ve been watching documentaries about the 1960s and 1970s with scenes of police brutality in the USA against anti-Vietnam war protestors. Frightening stuff with massed ranks of armed police. Much of that footage is similar to what has been going on in recent times at US universities.
It’s 2024 and the right to protest peacefully is seriously under threat.
Incidentally, we also caught the tail end of a programme about the death of John Lennon and how he became the prophet of “peace and love”, a message the commentator said has not been present in earlier times. During the two world wars, he commented, people wanted peace but there was no talk of ”peace and this was a new message. He envisaged a world in which John Lennon had not been killed, a world where he might have been seen in Gaza, demanding peace and love and justice for all!
And here’s another Michael Rosen, thought-provoking piece
'What's your view on truth, tutor?' said the King to his tutor.
'Why do you ask?' said the King's tutor.
'I'm thinking about how it is that people get to know about the truth,' said the tutor.
'Interesting,' said the tutor, 'because it all depends on what the people first hear.'
'Let's suppose,' said the King, 'that the people hear that my foresters cut a tree down.'
'In that case,' said the tutor, 'you must ask yourself, 'Do I want the people to believe my foresters cut the tree down or not?''
'Let's say, that I don't want them to believe that my foresters cut down the tree,' said the King, 'what next?'
'On your behalf, I issue a statement saying that there is no truth whatsoever in the suggestion that the King's foresters cut down the tree,' said the tutor.
'But people will know that my foresters cut down the tree,' said the King.
'Ah, that's where you oversimplify things,' said the tutor, 'you see, when we say that there is no truth whatsoever in the suggestion that the King's foresters cut down the tree, it causes confusion. The people who thought that we cut down the tree are now not so certain. Next time they speak about the tree, they will say things like, 'we had understood that the King's foresters cut down the tree, but on the other hand, the King says there is no truth in this'. Did you hear that 'on the other hand' bit?'
'Yes I did,' said the King, 'and now I don't know myself whether my foresters cut down the tree!'
'Very funny, sir,' said the tutor, 'because after all, it was just a story you made up!'
'Yes indeed, just a story,' said the King, 'just a story...'
Hmmm!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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