Fight the Might - March Against Prejudice

This is not one of my long, rose-tinted meandering blogs
Not words full of hope and all-that-is-good-in-the-world. 
This is a short and cloud-tinted blog.
Because right now I am scared.
And not just because the world is being held precariously in the hands of an egocentric, thin-skinned reality TV show host 
Not just because the BREXIT vote has divided a nation and burnt the bridges for our children's future.
Not just because hate crime is rising and the weak and young and vulnerable are left voiceless and weak
.
I'm scared because of the little things
.
While our politicians discuss the big things:  how to live in a "post-truth," world, international policy, global warming, state visits, while they discuss all those things, every day, right on our doorsteps, the little things are destroying the fabric of our communities.
While politicians debate and discuss and negotiate, swaztikas are being sprayed on walls, our daughter experiences "soft," racism on a daily basis  and just today I watched a video  where a local Parish Council (composed of elderly white men and women) reject the development of a skate park for teenagers at the same time as expressing racist views
.

How can any of this be ok?
These small things....they're not small.
This local politics.....it's not just local.



This is a short blog about being scared.
And the thing that  scares me the most, is my own cowardice.
The thing that I am most frightened of, is doing nothing.
Inaction and apathy are as much to blame for the wave of fear and hatred and prejudice that is washing over us as the actions and words of our leaders and politicians.

I spend my days finding a million excuses to do nothing.
I convince myself that I am too busy, that I already do enough, that I am just one person so what difference can I make.
But those are no longer good enough excuses.
.
I'm not sure what it is that we can do, but I am sure that doing nothing is no longer an option.

My parents, like many others, are the children of refugees who fled war-torn Europe.
It's not so long ago that "hate," almost won. 
We cannot risk that happening again.

And we can sit here and discuss how terrible it is and how wrong everyone else is, or we can do something about it. 
And we can say these things are too big and too complicated and too-out-of-our-control to  or we can start trying to stop them from happening again.
We are the grassroots.
Grassroots is where it starts.
There is power in numbers.
Power in the knowledge that we are not alone.


So...people of Chichester (or close-by).....how about it?
How about we show we care?
How about a March Against Prejudice? It would, at least, be a start.
Parents- we are fighting for our children's future.
Grandparents - we are fighting for the future you used to dream of. 
Everyone, we are fighting for a safer, more caring  and better tomorrow.

If you want to be part of this, leave a comment or a message...and perhaps, just perhaps, we can make it happen.