The opposite end

I don't know whether it's because I'm so angry at the moment (see previous blips) that I'm seeing signs of antagonism all around me or because we really are becoming more polarised but things certainly feel heightened right now: violence against women, racism, the attempt to remove our right to protest against injustice...**

On my Facebook feed this morning I saw a piece of Nazi graffiti* posted by Oxford Stand Up to Racism who were wondering how long it would last. It just so happened to be extremely close to where I live so I leapt up and left my coffee to get cold while I went to find it, wondering whether I could take a can of half-used house paint to it. By the time I got there, an Oxford City Council worker was already spray-painting it out and 26 minutes after the Facebook post it was gone. I thanked him and he told me he too had seen it on Facebook and had gone straight there. If it had been reported officially, he said, it would have been removed earlier. Impressive. 

Saturday is UN Anti-Racism Day and in the current over-heated political climate it's not clear how to mark it without risk of arrest but it must and will be marked.

* With trepidation I am including the graffiti as an extra, not to give it oxygen but because I know that Blipfoto is one of the websites kept by the British Library and this is evidence of our times from an uncertain future. Please do NOT look at it if you will be upset or offended. For those who do, you can Google the numbers. I am not explaining.

** I am aware that the person who wrote this graffiti is also protesting against what he sees as an injustice. Somehow, somewhere, we have to find ways to talk.