After my enthusing over a dark autumn day we have moved on to an Indian Summer. The weather has been beautiful these last few days with temperatures not far from 70F and some bright sun shine. It is all caused the met office tells us, by warm air coming up from the Mediterranean. But it's good and we should enjoy it while it lasts.
The big political talking point in the last week has been the appearance of Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party on BBC Question Time. Much has been said about this programme and the fact that a representative of an extreme racist party was allowed to appear. The programme did not followed a normal format with questions about many items in the news. This programme was a set up to attack Nick Griffin and the BNP. The audience was quite extraordinary and certainly not representative of ordinary society in this country. I did not think that either of the other politicians, Jack Straw and Chris Huhne, performed all that well. Jack Straw particularly was very shifty, refusing to answer several questions that attacked this governments record on immigration control. It now seems - we hear via a leak - that Tony Blair and Jack Straw deliberately engineered massive immigration in order to manufacture a "multi-cultural society" and to brand the Tories racist. If this is true, it is yet another sad indictment of the worst government in my lifetime. It may be that Nick Griffin did not perform all that well on Question Time but the publicity for his party has been extraordinary. The fact is that the three main parties have consistently refused to discuss the matter of immigration and population control. This in a week when it has been revealed that population is set to rise to 71.6 m by 2033 and that 66% of this increase will be as a direct result of immigration. With statistics like these the BNP will continue to get support and if the only way we can get the problem of immigration to be addressed is by voting BNP, I for one, will be voting BNP - even if they are racist and nazi.
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Racism begins with our families, parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, people we admire, respect and love.
However, as we grow and mature we come to the realization that what we were told by our family when we were children were slanted lies base on their prejudices. We realize that most people are like ourselves and not so different and want the same things, like a home, steady work, a Medicare plan and schools for our children (if you travel you will see this). We realize that most people are of good hearts and goodwill.
This reminds me of a parable from the good book where a Levite and Priest come upon a man who fell among thieves and they both individually passed by and didn’t stop to help him.
Finally a man of another race came by, he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy and got down with the injured man, administered first aid, and helped the man in need.
Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his fellow man.
You see, the Levite and the Priest were afraid, they asked themselves, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”
But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
That’s the question before us. The question is not, “If I stop to help our fellow man (immigrant) in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help our fellow man, what will happen to him or her?” That’s the question.
This current climate of blaming others for our woes is not new. We have had this before and we have conquered it.
Remember “Evil flourishes when good men (and women) do nothing”. Raise your voices with those of us who believe we are equal and we can win this battle again.
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