My plea
on Sheila Ash (India), 16/Oct/2016 06:16, 34 days ago
The clock is already counting down.The steps of change tread soft upon the ground.Beware their speed is not the worry,their slowness signals danger, not their hurry.The frog put in boiling waterwill panic at the thought of slaughterand jump away, not slump and stay.Yet put in cold, it’s not so boldas slowly death takes its final hold.Complacent, we took for granted that by our long ago chantingof“we shall overcome” that we overcame.Naively we still claimthat the glass ceiling‘s been supplanted,segregation laws recanted,the right to vote permanently implanted,in the very fabric of our domain.Only in 55 did Rosa Parks make her standagainst the demandshe give up her seat to a standing white man.In 58 a boycott of Bristol bussesput aside those racial cussesand finally taught usthere is no difference between us.But today upon the train I see them dareto challenge Ruza Hadiqa’s right to wear.No longer a silent mumbled stare, they loudly declaretheir demand that she vacate their promised land,although they were born to the same midwife’s hand.Down on a summer beach patrol the French policeTo astound us all as they impeach the removal of a pieceof cotton cloth.Where for cometh this caprice*as it seeks to personifyher in her neighbour’s eyeas the all-conquering Ostrogoth**.Social media routinely fires wild stories across its wiresseeking to beseechSome with tongue in cheekOthers with serious outreachaiming to bequeath the future removal of the 19th.Out from the dark web the internet trollsAmass momentum on TV wallsThe gathering of satyric*** forcesmustering up their wide resourcesploughing their own political coursesacross our realm.Now out in the limelight, just like a bullfightup on the stage, like a bear in a cage,their candidate prances,while the party spokesman dances,stalking and plotting, mocking and gropingto get their hands upon the helm.Let us not forget the sacrifices of suffragettes,of mixed quartets improvising more than musical advances.yes life’s a lottery of chancesthat have been bought with more than speeches.So rise up my sons and daughtersand do not fear to look abroad across the watersdon’t be shackled by thoughts of purely financial mattersdon’t forget the circumstance of history that still brings the miseryof children dying on Greek beaches.So seek and strive at every turning to build the quality of learningto steer our life choices, to lift aloud our voicesto ensure that it comes to passas every voters vote is castwe govern by the compassof fair for all social justice.© Sheila Ash 16thOctober 2016*caprice - a sudden and unaccountable change of mood or behaviour.**Ostrogoth - a member of the eastern branch of the Goths, who conquered Italy in the 5th–6th centuries AD***satyr - one of a class of lustful, drunken woodland godsashramblings