The seed of change

Cold pavement indeed
the night you died,
murdered;
but the airborne drop of blood
from your wound
was a seed
your mother sewed
into hard ground –
your life's length doubled,
unlived, stilled,
till one flower, thorned,
bloomed
in her hand,
love's just blade.

Stephen Lawrence by Carol Ann Duffy from the Guardian

I, troublemaker

Following a Guardian report of police spotter cards, comes this helpful website for forging your own:

Inclusive Church Meeting in Macclesfield

.. some local news, foreigners can go to the Inclusive Church website and see if there's a meeting nearer them.
Sat 13th June - Church of the Resurrection, Upton Priory Macclesfield, speakers Clare Herbert and Clive Larsen. I'm intending to be there!

Good news on the SSG/SPCK front

Dave Walker who was the subject of a gagging order has posted on the SPCK saga. The Brewer's bookshop is also being evicted, at last, from Durham Cathedral. The wheels of justice may turn very slowly, but they are turning!

A mature debate?

From Blake Morrison on the Edlington and Bulger cases:

In the UK you have to reach 16 legally to have sex or marry, 17 to drive a car, and 18 to drink in a pub, serve on a jury, or vote in a general election. Yet at 10 you can be found guilty of murder or rape.

When are we going to have a mature debate on age, responsibility and crime, it is far easier to demonise young criminals and lock them away...

Invisible but amongst us

On Wednesday, a trip to Silk Screen to see Nick Broomfield's Ghosts, a tale of the events leading up to the death of 23 Chinese in the sands of Morecambe Bay. A fascinating, depressing study with many insights, I was interested in the various power hierarchies that were working there - even among the victims.
Here's the trailer:

Looks like the website of the fund for the victims http://www.ghosts.uk.com/ - as they received no help from the British Government - is down. I found it an interesting conjunction as the night before on the BBC news there'd been the story of a British lorry driver, Chris Mason, deported from Canada after being injured - we were told that the British government was much better - clearly not always.
I'd recommend the film, a great performance from Ai Qin Lin (a non-actor!!). a review is here as well as more on the issues. I was born on the Lancashire coast - so the film rang many bells and the exposure of modern day slavery just below the surface of our so civilised society will haunt you!
I've just been reminded by opinionated old fart of Langston Hughes I, too, sing America- his context is Obama - where it is very powerful, but there are echoes here too!

I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

wonderfully set by Bernstein in Songfest.

Learning from prisoners

Jane Clay on Offenders and their beliefs(pdf document) off the Justice Reflections website. I knew Jane - a few years ago now!