Wednesday 17 August 2016

Not A Trot

I’m not a Trot, a Nazi Stormtrooper, an entryist or part of any rabble. I am not simple, naïve or stupid.

I’m just a human being who gets upset when I think about the 100,000s of women and children  murdered in our name in illegal war in Iraq. It was not 13 years ago for these people because they are just as human as you and me and their loved ones feel life-changing and eternal grief as much as you or me. But, unlike you and me, they cannot forget the trauma or the never-ending sense of loss just by flicking the channel button. I get upset when I see the shiny, gleaming-faced, enriched perpetrators of these crimes waltz the earth hailed as heroes leaving a trail of blood that it is considered too rude to mention.  

I continue to get upset when we are encouraged to forget about the horror of that war like it was just a bad dream, or didnt really happen, or at least didnt really happen to anyone who mattered. I remain upset when we are told that bombing anywhere will solve anything when mountains of evidence show that it solves nothing anywhere. It further upsets me that, when I mention this, I am considered an “extremist” while those screaming to drop bombs beside terrified women and children are considered “moderate”.

I’m just a person who thinks that free education is an essential right of all citizens and that if we have money for wildly expensive and ultimately useless nuclear bombs then we have the money to pay teachers, to built and maintain schools as fully-functioning shrines to the principles of universal learning.

I’m just a believer in the dignity  - and the relief - offered by cradle to grave care for every citizen regardless of means to pay and someone who believes that this is what can truly be called “civilisation”.

I’m just someone who thinks that the world is run by powerful cliques who are intent on reversing a century of social progress and mobility and who seek to diminish anyone who challenges their intentions, and intent on dividing us, the people, at all costs.

I’m just somebody who is uncomfortable that our media has become so comfortable with those in power that they have forgotten that their role was to, on our behalf, challenge the powerful and to treat all parties and individuals equally in the interest of objectivity, rather than to echo the baying and the snarling of the powerful elite they appear to serve rather than question.

I just want the freedom to challenge, to question, to change, to progress, to protect, to offer help, peace, love and understanding to all.

I’m just someone who believes 99% of the population want the same, and that it is our duty to remain united and to challenge the 1% who would deny us hope, peace and justice.