Death Move Us Forward Not Back

A Facebook "friend" of mine has started calling people racist if they don't agree with his views on Black Lives Matter (BLM). This has been an escalation in his behaviour over the last few weeks since the death of George Floyd.

Let's just start out with a statement of fact: Black Lives Matter. No one that this friend talks to is disputing this fact with him but when you try to point that in the last week or so here (UK) three British men (all white) were stabbed to death while relaxing in a park by an Islamic extremist and therefore we have to remember that those three guys lives mattered as well, apparently that makes myself a racist.

Those guys lives mattered.

In Glasgow (UK) on Friday a man in a hotel being used for asylum seekers lost the head and started stabbing prople randomly. Armed officers shot him dead. Not because of his colour or creed but because he was dangerous to the public. No one else died in the incident although many were stabbed. A police officer who was first on scene ran into the melee to save members of the public. He was injured badly although his is on the mend. Nothing will mend his mind though and the scene he walked into.

Their lives matter.

While it's right to say that black lives do matter, the lives of people killed who are not black also matter too. There's not really a discussion to be had, I don't think, where the death of one person is better or worse than another. If anyone is murdered then everyone had to realise that the deceased's life matter. They were a spouse, a sibling, a son or daughter, a parent, a work colleague, a best friend, a team mate.

There are people out there who are dedicated to the division of people and that's all that is on their agenda. Sadly, though, things can't work like that. We can't defund the police. We shouldn't pull down any and every statue without making sure that the history of that statue is available for ALL to read because behing that statue is a history that, whether good or bad, has to be known. You can't sweep away history because it suits. It has to be fronted and remembered so that everyone can moved forward as one.