So, a little while since the last post, but I have just finished watching ‘Murdered for Being Different’ on the BBC iPlayer. If anyone is yet to see it, I highly recommend it, a very moving and insightful documentary/drama – now I don’t want to ruin the plot for anyone, but it features the murder of Sophie Lancaster in 2007, something which I had previously heard about, but I’ve never really known too much about it.
The main thing that this programme has caused me to feel and which actually compelled me to say something about it, is how ashamed it makes me feel to know that this is what other people out there do to each other. How can anyone on this planet, any ‘human’ do to someone else purely because of the way they look, or the beliefs that they hold, is beyond me, are we not all of the same species? Do we not all share the same DNA? I’ll be honest, I am not an emotional person, to any outsider I’m pretty emotionless, but tonight, I can openly say my heart broke for the poor man that lost his girlfriend due to the moronic acts of spineless weasels. I for one will happily tell anyone that my better half was the only thing in my mind watching that, as much as I could throttle her most days, I still wouldn’t want to be without her, and I am sure most would agree.
Anyway, I digress, the real point that I am aiming to make is that how does hate crime still exist today? We are supposedly a modern and forward thinking society, one of, if not the most, advanced society the world has ever seen, and yet we still manage to place some sort of imaginary divide between ourselves for something as minimal as having a different appearance. Surely, this is baffling to more than just me, and this isn’t the only instance, it is happening more and more, a horrifying statistic says that last year over 70,000 hate crimes were recorded in the UK, the most since records began – why?!
If you’re sat reading this and you think its because people are different to you that they are weird – why?! What gives you, me or anyone for that matter, the right to decide what normality really is? Does normal even exist, is it even a thing? I mean isn’t our individuality what makes us who we are, do you really want to be exactly the same as everyone else?
What I now believe, more now than ever, is that as we move forward we need to produce a more inclusive society all around us, should we create such an atmosphere, surely there would be no more hate, if we could all accept that every person is different, and thats okay, couldn’t we all just move forward happier? Where has the spirit of community disappeared to in less than a century? When doors could be left unlocked, you could speak to people in the street or on a bus, and you could be that little bit different, stand out from the crowd, and not fear that you would be attacked for it.
Please, let us recreate this community, and prove to ourselves, the scumbags that try to divide us will not win.
The Opinionated Man 