Seeing this man's beautiful gesture outside a mosque in Manchester after yesterday's terrible terrorist attack in New Zealand gives me hope.
We live in a time where everyone seems out to underline our differences and divisions, creating a politic of mistrust and hate. If it's not Trump stirring up visions of a fictional mass-Mexican invasion of the US, it's Farage blustering about his one-man mission to excise us from Europe as soon as possible. The words of these, to put it broadly, politicians, hoodwink the impressionable to think we're all at threat.
It's like we've lost track of what's important and what we share. It's no wonder there's so much misplaced hatred when just a cursory flick through the arse-end of the press reveals countless reiteration of the differences between "us" and "them".
It made me angry to see today's tabloid front pages attempt to represent the horror of events in Christchurch, yet get it so wrong. As far as the Mail was concerned, the most important question raised by the mass-shooting was 'Why didn't Facebook pull the footage sooner?', while the Mirror ran with the scoop that 'Everybody was a child once'.
But not everyone gets dragged into this sinkhole. And today, a man in Manchester did his bit. He wasn't the only one, I'm sure, but his actions spoke for the rest of us, and his message was one of love while illustrating the ties that bind us. It was a kind, courageous thing to do that went some way to redress the balance. I stand by him: he's a flat-capped legend.
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| https://twitter.com/BBCRadioManc/status/1106583941836881920 |
We live in a time where everyone seems out to underline our differences and divisions, creating a politic of mistrust and hate. If it's not Trump stirring up visions of a fictional mass-Mexican invasion of the US, it's Farage blustering about his one-man mission to excise us from Europe as soon as possible. The words of these, to put it broadly, politicians, hoodwink the impressionable to think we're all at threat.
It's like we've lost track of what's important and what we share. It's no wonder there's so much misplaced hatred when just a cursory flick through the arse-end of the press reveals countless reiteration of the differences between "us" and "them".
It made me angry to see today's tabloid front pages attempt to represent the horror of events in Christchurch, yet get it so wrong. As far as the Mail was concerned, the most important question raised by the mass-shooting was 'Why didn't Facebook pull the footage sooner?', while the Mirror ran with the scoop that 'Everybody was a child once'.
But not everyone gets dragged into this sinkhole. And today, a man in Manchester did his bit. He wasn't the only one, I'm sure, but his actions spoke for the rest of us, and his message was one of love while illustrating the ties that bind us. It was a kind, courageous thing to do that went some way to redress the balance. I stand by him: he's a flat-capped legend.