What to do with what they did...

“A Terrible Beauty is Born” – W.B. Yeats (“Easter 1916”)

I have been watching the payback over the riots in England and wondering to myself if the British understand the concept of real justice.  Yes, I know, people want to punish the ones who have burned and destroyed whole sections of their towns and cities.  I would not be too happy if I had to clean up the site that used to be the store I spent a lifetime creating and operating because it is now an ash heap of burnt timber and broken bricks and glass.  But I am becoming more and more disturbed by the reaction of the current government to the uprising.

Yes, I have personal reasons for caring about what happens in Merrie Olde: I visited the country when I was about 14 and spent six weeks visiting family, seeing the sights that I saw, but also traveling on my own.  The best moments were the ones where I did get lost and found things that I never expected to see.  And I am not surprised that rioting could take place in such a country.  There was plenty of racist graffiti, ugly scenes of conflict on the street and in the general mood of certain people, and I did stay for part of the vacation in the East End of London (Plaistow): I was enough of a city kid to know that I did not want to leave the apartment after a certain level of darkness hit those streets and blind corners.

I just received an email from a relative who works on one of the city’s fine councils as an advisor, and she told me that the conflict was no surprise to her.   She had plenty of time to see what the cuts made by the government would lead to and that any incident could have sparked the anger she felt from young people who really believed they had no future and nowhere to go.  I know that there was a shooting, but it could have been any type of friction between the police and the faceless youth they were outflanked and outfought by over a long and violent week.

Final notes: I went to work yesterday and had to listen to people share their delight in seeing Will and Kate in the flesh and how wonderful things are now that they are married and seem to be such a delightful couple.  Not a word about the riots or what that delightful couple cost the country in financial and emotional costs. I made a point of leaving the office without saying a word.

 

England will have to reconsider their own ironies…