Blog 171: We are family

“London calling to the faraway towns:Now that war is declared-and battle come down” From London Calling by the Clash

I have listen to all sorts of codswallop this week. I have seen normally sane well balanced people (who know media manipulation from the truth every time)… turn into draconian enforcers baying for retribution. I have smelt the smoke of my home town on fire. I have felt fear as I am blamed for what happened because of my appearance or my lifestyle choices. I have tasted blood in mouth as I restrain myself from joining the debate… because it is stupid, it’s not debatable our family is falling apart.

Well enough. Vigilantes who claimed to protect the high street of the town I grew up in went ballistic the other night because they saw boys on the top deck of a bus who were different from them. To the vigilantes these boys could have only been passing through my town to loot and rob it. And in a mind blowing act of logic, the vigilantes set fire to my town centre. (see photo above).

So enough now.

I was born in this city half a century ago opposite the Palace of Westinster - seat of western democracy. I don't think I could be more London than that. I am older and wiser than most of those I hear talk and most of those I see do. So now, I am talking and you lot you can shut up and listen.

We are London. We are a family. We may all have huge differences but… we, the people who call this place our home are ONE.

In this family though, the parents have raised the kids on empty promises and lousy examples. They have played each of us off each other till we hate the very notion of the other existing in the same space. Then the parents went on holiday leaving the kids with nothing to sustain them more than a stomach full of rage and box of matches. The parents have returned from holiday and are acting totally shocked that the kids have burnt the house down.

We each and everyone of us who live in this city and its suburban overspill have to understand… WE are the kids in this analogy. We have to stop destroying each other because the parents got it wrong. They know they got it wrong, but they will never fix it if we keep fighting amongst ourselves and hurting each other. They want us to blame each other… because that way they never have to accept that they caused this. They just shrug and say “I’m going to show those kids the back of my hand”. And suddenly they are justified and right.

Of course good parents talk to their kids, find out the issues and work with them. It’s not a quick fix but that is how you make rounded human beings who understand violence is not the default setting to disagreement. Bad parents lash out in temper or embarrassment at a kid to quickly seize power – it doesn’t make for rounded human beings but when you are looking for a quick fix there is little that works faster than the back of the hand in the heat of the moment.

Our metaphorical parents have ‘the back of their hand’ ready. They have rubber bullets, they have water cannon, they have an arsenal of justifications for their own bad parenting and they are ready to punish the kids. They will not be grounding us for the weekend. They mean to ensure that there will never be a debate about why this happened and they mean to ensure that they can look in the eye the other parents (who are watching us misbehave in horror)and say “All taken care of… we won’t be having THAT little episode again".

Look I know they’ve divided us and made us all hate each other. BUT...Can we all try to understand that burning down our own metaphorical house and hating on our own metaphorical family members because we are all are different is NOT the answer.

Listen to me… some of your fellow Londoners are unemployed, some are young, some are rich, some are old, some are married, some are raising kids solo, some are shopkeepers, some are big businessmen, some drive firetrucks, some are policemen, some are people of colour, some came from other parts of Europe, some live in the suburbs, some chose the centre, some pray to different Gods and some believe in nothing at all… THEY ARE ALL LONDONERS! They are your family…what ever minuscule differences you can find… we are a proud city of diversity not a city of clones. This sudden hatred we all have for each other… this has been engineered. We are being played.

We ARE being played. Our metaphorical parents set it up for this to happen so they can push through even more hurtful schemes than they have already. While we are too busy blaming each other to notice.

So we need to stop. NOW.

We don’t need vigilantes and opportunists and vandals, and murderers and threats and fires and fear. And you know why... Because we are better than this.

WE are London.






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