Right now, we have to be angry
We should be angry.
We should be very angry, as angry as we know politically how.
Angry about the poorest people who are now destitute. About the vulnerable children who are now more vulnerable.
Angry about the government’s failures to meet this crisis so people are dying who need not have done.
Angry about the National Health Service exposed by the years of reduced support.
Angry about the gross inequalities in British society that are now being paid out in death and fear.
Angry about the ‘underlying conditions’ that are killing the elderly in the failures of social care.
Angry at the Bransons for not paying their taxes, more angry with governments for allowing them to do that, and immensely angry at the livelihoods of thousands of people that are in their greedy keeping.
Angry that we don’t have the right to work, the living wage, living benefits. Angry that much of the worker’s voice and the power of trade unions has been dismantled.
Angry that decisions about the future of work will not be made by the workers.
Angry that it takes specialists in statistics to make the odd headline that more poor people are dying than the rich as if that’s not the most obvious fact in the world and that it has been in the hands of the politicians and political parties in our lifetimes to change that for good and all.
Angry that this death is prejudiced against black and ethnic minority people. Angry that racism and government’s craven attacks on migrants have taxed their health at a higher rate, bullied their constituents to this ‘underlying condition’.
Angry that it has taken this crisis of death to see the realities of climate change death, angry that so many systematic interests in power and money have fought to deny that knowledge and keep the dying quiet.
Angry that we’re not and have not been angry enough.
We must be very angry even though many people don’t want to hear angry voices now. People who can afford their complacency are joined by people who can see good being done on all sides and are doing good themselves and want to believe that they are all really one big family inside the nation and where our leaders are always trying to do their best.
It is a strong investment of feelings reinforced by fear and sorrow. But feelings divorced from political understanding betray the possibility of an actual undivided society, a democracy where action, thought and feeling include everybody.
To be angry is to be on the side of life against death.
PS. Bright Green has big plans for the future, but we need your input. Take 2 minutes to see what we’re planning and tell us your thoughts.
Image credit: D@LY3D – Creative Commons
As Greens we should also be angry that so much ill health which has rendered so many people more vulnerable to infections like covid19 has been caused by governments of all stripes neglecting public health in favour of a “healthy” economy. Our parks run down, our water systems polluted, cycling and walking made perilous by heavy traffic; the list is endless. I’d like to see the Green Party really speaking out about these matters, which lie beneath all the ills mentioned, and putting the environment right at the centre of your campaigns.