Sunday, July 24, 2005

On this day in history

Looking back on it now, I think Friday 22nd July, 2005, that was the turning point. You remember? That was the day that the police shot Charles de Menezes for "looking a bit foreign". I think up until that point we'd not fully succumbed to the will of the extremist's. Now of course, that seems like a minor incident, but then, then it had been different. Then, we hadn't fully embraced the terrorist's lie that it was "us" against "them". Then, we still had a chance.

From that day on though, our society changed. It had become acceptable to kill someone just because they didn't look like "us". It was justified when it should have been condemned. People said that in these dangerous times it was understandable, that no-one was to blame. Dangerous times? It sounds silly now, doesn't it? Who wouldn't want to live in those dangerous times now?

Of course that was before the catastrophic economic meltdown which still shows no sign of ending, before the internment camps, before ID cards (btw, is mine the only one that doesn't seem to work properly? I seem to spend at least one afternoon a week having to prove I'm me to some jackboot official or another), before the deportations, before... but it's hard to remember how good we'd had it back then. We had thought it would last forever. Perhaps it could have.

I'd like to say more but the battery I'm using is almost flat. Got to keep some juice to listen to the government's public information broadcasts on the radio. No idea when I'll get it charged up again so who knows when I'll be able to post again. Anyone know how the power station repairs are going?

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