THIS IS A LONG ONE BUT I URGE YOU TO READ IT… I have woken up this morning to another beautiful day here in Letham, Fife. I am loving my long school holidays not just because the weather has been great but because the Commonwealth Games are on and I am loving watching Scotland and the other home nations doing so well – though typically there has been a bit too much focus on the medalists and not enough on the stories of athletes from developing nations of the Commonwealth and their struggles to make it to this level. I am loving going fishing, being with my family, living and eating well and trying to get a bit fitter. Today I might head off up north to see friends and do some more of the above in parts of this country that I really love with people I really love. I have the prospect ahead of celebrations of my 25th wedding anniversary, going back to a secure job in the middle of August (now that one is a bit of a mixed feeling but essentially I love that too) and then in a few weeks time, in the autumn, I am anticipating another brilliant Letham Nights on 11th October, when a band from Manchester called The Travelling Band will play to a full house and we will have a great time. That night we will also celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the amazing Secret Garden outdoor nursery, an inspired initiative devoted to giving local children a brilliant start in life by allowing them to explore their creativity in the woods 12 months of the year OUTSIDE. How wonderful is all of that? But the bit about children has brought me to another awakening this morning. While I enjoy this blessed life, hundreds of children are dying in Gaza and thousands more are being injured and maimed in a conflict which is simply INTOLERABLE and has to STOP and to make this happen we all have to do something about it. So here is what I am going to do: 1. Urge everyone to watch this brave, brilliant and moving clip from Jon Snow on Channel 4 to convince/ remind you that we all have a responsibility to do something https://youtube/watch?v=ACgwr2Nj_GQ 2. From now on, all my posts on Facebook or other personal social media will be about this and they will be public. Whether it’s a photo of my dinner or of a landscape, a comment about what is happening on the telly, or a link to something I want to share with you, they will all make reference to the children of Gaza. 3. I am going to write to the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games & UNICEF and all those responsible for the inspired campaign at the opening ceremony #PutChildrenFirst to urge them to put their principles on the line, take the opportunity of a huge global audience and make a strong stop-the-war-on-gaza statement at the closing ceremony. I hope the killing will be over by then but there is a very strong possibility that it will not. There has been a commitment that politics will be kept out of the Games but this is way BEYOND politics. It is about children and what is going on is wrong. So there you go. Who’s up for it? What other suggestions do you have? So there you go. Who’s up for it? What other suggestions do you have?
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 06:11:02 +0000
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