I'm really sorry to say that I am going to be a miserable crow and rant a bit in this blog. Usually, I try to have a happy line of optimism running through this drivel. I'm not sure I will manage it this time. Let's see how we go. Please feel free to ditch this and go and watch Vera if you prefer.
Many years ago, we used to sing "Oh Lord the Clouds Are Gathering." If you haven't heard it - it's very heavy on Doves of Peace having their wings broken and children starving while tools of war increase. It's here if you want to listen. I bow to no one in my admiration for Graham Kendrick but, in the wrong meeting, this could bring the mood down as decisively as a fire alarm. However, with the way things are looking at the moment, it seems about right.
This week, the drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office has stirred the pot a bit. If you didn't know, this was a scandal where hundreds of Post Masters were accused of fraud because of a faulty computer system. Some went to jail, some took their own lives. Despite the way this is being played as something that has been a complete secret until it was turned into a drama with Toby Jones, it has been the subject of sterling investigative journalism not least by Nick Wallis from Radio 4. The thing that has knocked everyone back is that this could happen in this country. Where were the government?
I asked the same question this week when half the country was underwater. People said they felt left to their own devices and, commendable though it is for people in their wellies, to try and rescue Bernice and her pet cockatoo from the upstairs bathroom - possibly while singing The White Cliffs of Dover to invoke the Dunkirk Spirit, it surely would have been preferable to have support from some kind of coordinated response. Ideally from someone with - I don't know - some kind of training. This is before we think about the possibility of someone coming up with a bit of forward-thinking to stop these poor people from having to deal with a front room packed with poo and water every January.
Speaking of water. HOH likes to swim in the sea. Before he dons his shorts and his swim gloves - it's a look trust me - he has to check with the Surfers Against Sewage website to see if the water companies have seen fit to skip the cleaning part of being a water company and just bung untreated sewage into the sea. They do this and no one in charge feels they need to stop them.
Finally, it is more than six years since seventy-two people died in the Grenfell Fire and still, people live in buildings with dangerous cladding as builders and developers use all the legal tricks they can think of to wriggle out of it.
You could possibly come up with lots of other things. I haven't even touched on wars or famines. I was watching a brief interview with Hilary Clinton and she was saying that one of the things that Joe Biden is up against is that he is boring. He's boring because he is a responsible citizen doing a responsible job soberly and others concentrate on performative politics which catches the eye. We feel we can watch this happen and not feel the need to pull our weight or call out injustice.
Bumping up against this are low voting rates because we are led to believe that "they are all the same" and it doesn't make any difference. I personally believe that everyone is NOT the same and there are still people in public service who aren't just feathering their own nests.
When I was a teenager in church, I had a friend who had a bit too keen an interest in what she used to call "THE END TIMES". She used to talk about there being "Blood on the Moon" so an astronaut would have to die before THE END TIMES. She also used to talk about things going seriously downhill would signal THE END TIMES. You get the sort of thing. She was a nice girl really. I don't think she took things that seriously in the end because she ran off with an Indian restaurant owner who, I heard, looked very good in a white waiter's jacket. Last I heard - they were happily married with four children. I'm not saying that these are THE END TIMES. I have no idea but the call to justice must surely be as strong as it ever was.
You could get quite tired though, with things dragging along the way they are. But, this despair, this hopelessness at the way things are is completely understood.
So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time, we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith. (Gal 6)
Plugging away to do the right thing. Unlikely to get you a lucrative column in the Daily Mail or a spot on GB News. There's no glamour here but eventually, if enough people take it on, justice seems like it follows. Have a good week.
ReplyDeleteIt is twenty five years- a quarter of a century - since the Post Office started falsely persecuting postmasters/mistresses because the Horizon software was rubbish. Why are they only NOW deciding to do something? [because of Toby's TV programme and an upcoming election I guess]
My daughter had to explain to her children this summer that they couldn't paddle and swim t one of their favourite Norfolk beaches because there was poo floating in the water.
And as you say, more than 6 years after Grenfell, things have not been significantly improved.
How can intelligent people keep supporting this government??
Re The End Times. In one sense, it has been the End Times ever since the Ascension. He's gone, and He is coming back. In my teens it was Larry Norman singing "I wish we'd all been ready" - and that was 50 years ago. So we must be nearer than we were then. I have always felt it was best just to get on with living the best I could for Jesus, because right now, today, is all I have, I cannot 100% guarantee where I will be tomorrow. I grew up listening to people who ended their prayers with the phrase "Until Jesus comes or calls" - and just this evening I have heard of the death of a friend. Our time is in his hands - so we best get on and use it for his glory. Working for peace and justice wherever we can.
Thanks for another challenging post. Please tell your OH to be careful pout there in that filthy water, he has responsibilities so must not get ill.
Have a good week. Be good this week. Do good this week.
And dont watch the 10pm news before bed, it will make you angry about the injustices in the world and not help your sleep patterns.
Why is Plymouth so far from Norfolk. I should love to go to a coffee shop with you
I know. HOH tells me that Norfolk is almost as far as you get get horizontally from Plymouth. But never say never!!
DeleteIt all becomes too, too much, and I feel far too powerless. I think that chasing after more and more personal wealth has derailed so many people and had a lot to do with bringing us to where we are today,
ReplyDeleteIt's a sense of community that is missing as you say.
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