August 1st – Time changes things; things that once
seemed so important, shocking, outrageous, things that cut us to the quick,
hurt or challenge us gradually have the edges worn off them by time and
eventually we take them for what they really are; passing things of passing
importance that only remain sharp if we continue to hone them.
All the wars in the world could have been avoided if people
only had the common sense to talk, seriously, to be prepared to talk to people
they may not particularly like and hear
things about themselves and their country that they also may not particularly
like. But then, we’re talking about politicians here and their level of
arrogance and self-regard will brook no criticism: nations don’t make history
(good or bad) individuals do. You only have to watch the preening,
self-adulatory behaviour of Prime Minister’s questions every Wednesday to get
the full scope on what we’re dealing with and you also know, to a certainty,
that if these people are ever caught out in a lie, a bad policy or a wrong
decision, they’ll move heaven and earth to prove that they’re not wrong, you
are. The recently released 30-year rule papers about the major social and
political events on the 70’s and 80’s are startling in their documentation of
our so-called ruler’s ignorance, some of which reaches levels of stupidity that
just beggars belief; in a nutshell, they hadn’t got a fuckin’ clue what to do
how to go about it and what the outcome might be; no more than you or me would
have had. They say the wrong things at the wrong time to the wrong person and
all of a sudden a minor spat becomes a full-blown diplomatic incident and folk
are lobbing stuff at each other…but of course it was never their fault.
Language, that’s the key. Not what you say but how you say
it, how you use the words to convey the correct meaning. This works both ways
for our language is a constantly developing method of communication. What was
one day innocent can suddenly become an insult, what was once an insult can suddenly
become respectable and street. For
instance, when I was kid (yes, we’re going that far back into our island’s
history… positively Neanderthal) when I was kid, if a gang of us kids were
playing cowboys and Indians and having wonderful fun, eyes reflecting the heat
of play-battle and real-summer, our parents would say we were having a gay old
time. I need say no more. High jacked by a section of the population you now
have to be careful how and when you use the word; folk can take umbrage very
quickly and all of a sudden a minor spat becomes a full-blown diplomatic
incident and folk are lobbing stuff at each other…
The same can be said of the N word. Used as a descriptive, pejorative term for someone of
African descent, once slavery had been abolished in the U.S. and a level of
dignity and self-determination had been achieved for the black population after
the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) of the 60’s and 70’s (I mean, be fair, it only
took, what, 250 years?) it was considered less than polite to use this word in
any context after the late seventies, certainly by whites. As the decades
rolled on into the 90’s it became noticeable that black Americans were using
this once deplored word in their everyday patter although it was still seen as
demeaning if used by white folk. Pre the CRM, however, the use of this word by
whites was in everyday parlance to the point where a headline in Life magazine that ran;
Lead Belly - Bad Nigger
Makes Good Minstrel
was seen as perfectly reasonable description of the blues singer, Huddie
William Ledbetter, and not seen as in any way wrong.
On this day in 1934, H. W. Ledbetter (Leadbelly) was released from
prison…he sang his way out of it. This was not his first term of incarceration;
he’d already served three terms, one for murder, one for attempted murder and
one for…carrying a pistol…? In the 
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