Hello HenryM.
Thanks for another interesting thought for the day.
You are so right about how perspectives emerge and develop and how diverse they can be.
I have had some good friends who were policemen and women. They were kind, compassionate, and community spirited. However, I used to undertake a lot of work at police stations in the role of ‘appropriate adult’ for those who might have been perceived as having mental health problems. During the miner’s strikes in the Thatcher era, I was witness to the backroom banter of the police(mostly men) with regard to their involvement in those confrontations and was absolutely appalled at what I heard.
For the most part, these people were talking in the same way that one might expect from a violent street gang, describing what their own violent tactics were going to be when they confronted those whom they perceived to be their less than human ‘enemy’. Their conversations reminded me of the sort of things the Fascist Nazis had been saying about their enemies during WW2.
To some extent, I was disappointed at this perspective, but some of the comments were pertinent in pinpointing from whence these perspectives arose, Clearly, these dangerous hooligans were being paid (overtime) well by their political employers who were dictated to by their then fascist leader.
There was nothing practical that I could do to prevent them, or their kind from waging war against the ordinary people who were trying to protect their livelihoods, so I did my usual thing and wrote rhymes to capture the sentiments and perspectives generated.
There were a series of rhymes over those decades, all to the tune of the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’, of which I will share the first one to give you an idea of the tone of the perspectives.
In verse 6, my perspective reveals the thought that pitting the police and the army against the people is equivalent to a civil war. It seems pertinent that in the past few weeks the police and the army have been mobilised to try to nullify the strikes by doctors, nurses, ambulance staff etc, etc.
It reminds me of the words to another song : “ When will they ever learn – when will they ever learn”
Best wishes
Bill
BATTLE HYMN OF THE 80’s.
CHORUS:
Glory, glory alleluia.
Don’t you let ‘em do it to yer.
Now, I’m gonna sock it to yer,
WE MUST PUT RIGHT WHAT’S WRONG.
She has given to the rich
and she has taken from the poor (x3)
THIS SURELY MUST BE WRONG
CHORUS - - - - - - -
She snatched the milk from children
then she did a whole lot more (x3)
THIS SURELY MUST BE WRONG
CHORUS - - - - - - -
She closed down many hospitals
and schools she closed galore (x3)
THIS SURELY MUST BE WRONG
CHORUS - - - - - - -
Millions unemployed
so she could keep the wages poor. (x3)
THIS SURELY MUST BE WRONG
CHORUS - - - - - - -
She said we had no money
but she took us all to war. (x3)
THIS SURELY MUST BE WRONG
CHORUS - - - - - - -
Police and Army ‘gainst the people
is the same as civil war (x3)
THIS SURELY MUST BE WRONG
CHORUS - - - - - - -
She’s against a SOCIAL CHARTER
which could open many doors. (x3)
THIS SURELY MUST BE WRONG
CHORUS - - - - - - -
Equal opportunities
are not just empty words (x3)
LET’S PUSH IT ON AND ON.
CHORUS - - - - - - -
B. Withers 1989
(In:’Evidence’ 1992)