Social Media is a great way of communicating our thoughts and feelings and the outrage provoked by the above skipped like a flat stone on still water creating the following sentiments as it danced into the emotions of the reader
- They are scum
- Prisons are too soft
- Bring back National Service (in war zones)
- This is what happens when loads of immigrants get into our country.
and it reminded me of this.
A man in his early forties took his seven year old son to see a film. The person concerned was a Site Supervisor at a local school. From time to time he was asked to assist in keeping good order in a sometimes pretty rowdy Youth Club. As he was walking back from the film he and his son were surrounded by a group of teenagers who threatened to "sort him out" because he had been instrumental in removing and banning a couple of them from the club. They were tooled up, it was frightening.
He reached into his pocket and slipped a bunch of school keys onto his fingers. pulled out his hand and said something along the lines of:
"Right, lads, there's a few of you and I'll go down here but before I go down, definitely one of you, possibly two of you and there's a chance that three of you are going to be scarred for life.....now get out my way." And they did.
At the time this happened, there was National Service, the Borstal regime was a brutalising experience, prison was harsh and there were no obvious immigrants in the group-there wouldn't have been, there was a great measure of anti-immigrant feeling by and large groups of youths stayed "within their own".
This happened in 1960. I was the seven year old in awe at my Dad's handling of the situation.
I understand the anger generated by the attack on the young man in Wolverhampton. I'm saddened by the simplistic, tired and clichéd responses that are no more of our time than is the willingness of some to opportunistically attack others for gain, revenge or fun.
And here's a photo of him taken around 3 years before the incident, with the F.A Cup, won by Aston Villa. A light, wiry man of purposeful strength and strong purpose whose only short-coming was to support Ast......ah well: It's been almost 22 years since he passed and his legacy grows in my heart, those of his grandchildren and I think many of those who remember this quietly-considered, kind and dignified man as a person of conviction and courage.
He would have found the responses outlined above and present on today's Facebook thread irrelevant, poorly considered and offering little by way of solution or balance.
He would have found the responses outlined above and present on today's Facebook thread irrelevant, poorly considered and offering little by way of solution or balance.
