Our lives have meaning when we can be a ripple of hope, a spark of sunshine in the lives of people we do not even know.
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Robert F. Kennedy SENIOR, spoken at the day of affirmation address, University of Cape Town, Cape town, South Africa, June 6, 1966.
A treasured quote of Aleksei A Navalny. Sent to Navalny by Kerry Kennedy, human-rights activist, and daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.
Death certainly is the outcome of policy. This is the fundamental premise of the idea of structural violence, particularly discussed in the USA context by Jim Gilligan, and much riffed upon by my colleagues and I in different places (see eg, with apologies for linking to Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Violent-States-Creative-Set-Individual/dp/1785920472?dplnkId=f8e10220-95e8-429c-9b1a-ee5437100c25). You nicely deploy old Ebenezer Scrooge! It's also worth remembering that the late twentieth century 'three strikes and you're out' policymaking is in a direct lineage from the middle ages and Marx' observation that we the housed enclosed the land and evicted the poor and then criminalised their consequent homelessness by making it a capital offence - you could literally be hanged - if you were caught a third time in the condition of being a 'sturdy vagabond', ie workless and homeless but able-bodied...and it's been like that ever since, even if the noise no longer awaits, as you vividly portray...🙏
Our lives have meaning when we can be a ripple of hope, a spark of sunshine in the lives of people we do not even know.
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Robert F. Kennedy SENIOR, spoken at the day of affirmation address, University of Cape Town, Cape town, South Africa, June 6, 1966.
A treasured quote of Aleksei A Navalny. Sent to Navalny by Kerry Kennedy, human-rights activist, and daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.
Please, please contact me. Substack is another one of THEM and I would so much like to help you stay safe from King Trump.
I will Bob! Look forward to catching up with you
Death certainly is the outcome of policy. This is the fundamental premise of the idea of structural violence, particularly discussed in the USA context by Jim Gilligan, and much riffed upon by my colleagues and I in different places (see eg, with apologies for linking to Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Violent-States-Creative-Set-Individual/dp/1785920472?dplnkId=f8e10220-95e8-429c-9b1a-ee5437100c25). You nicely deploy old Ebenezer Scrooge! It's also worth remembering that the late twentieth century 'three strikes and you're out' policymaking is in a direct lineage from the middle ages and Marx' observation that we the housed enclosed the land and evicted the poor and then criminalised their consequent homelessness by making it a capital offence - you could literally be hanged - if you were caught a third time in the condition of being a 'sturdy vagabond', ie workless and homeless but able-bodied...and it's been like that ever since, even if the noise no longer awaits, as you vividly portray...🙏
I am always grateful for another look . Thank you