Edward Lear.

I didn't have too many books read to me when I was a little kid but I do remember Dad on occasion gleefully reading to me from one of two books usually. Kipling's Just So Stories and the very mad and wonderful Complete Book of Nonsense by Edward Lear.
So to try to cheer you up this time I have endeavoured to write a limerick in the style of the great man himself thus:

THERE ONCE LIVED A LAD NAMED AKTIVO
IN A SEMI DETACHED RED GAZEBO
AND TO CURE ALL HIS ILLS
HE TOOK THOUSANDS OF PILLS
BUT ALAS, THEY WERE ONLY PLACEBOS!

I have recently been interestingly criticised by a mysterious person who goes by this name and have virtually been awarded a white feather by himself!
My memory of white feathers comes from Mum's stories about her days in the factories of Birmingham during WW2 when at one point she was in trouble for being a communist sympathiser and unionist. There were few men working on the shop floor in those days as most were away at war either killing or being killed. Amongst the ones who were left were the conscientious objectors or pacifists. Whether they deserved it or not is up to one's personal opinion but they were labelled as cowards and the women frequently left white feathers for them and generally ostracised them.
These days you'd be sure things had changed wouldn't you.

OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY
Passive-from the past tense passivus of the Latin verb pati meaning 'suffered'
Pacifist- 'a person who believes that war and violence are never justified'



I THOUGHT THE BEST WAY TO REPLY TO THIS MAN activo WAS LIKE THIS. SBX

Most of the people of Egypt want what we all want, a free and equal democracy and justice for their people".

Would they have got it with out engaging in civil disobedience?

STEVE : Who knows? What about the 350 or so families grieving for their sons and daughters, wives and husbands ,fathers and mothers, would they do it all over again? And they still haven't got 'it' yet.

Would it have been ok to let Adolf have his way rather than fight him in a war? Would you not have supported the Suffragettes or the Tolpuddle Martyrs? Were the miners wrong to resist Thatchers attempts to smash the unions?

STEVE : 3 different questions there. I live with a German woman and have no doubt that all of Europe was tainted by Adolf’s evil. But millions dead? Could there have been a less painful way?
Of course I would have supported the Suffrage and Martyrs but non - violently. I’d have chained up to Buck House railings like a shot!
Not wrong to protect themselves and their families from poverty but unable to see what was the beginning of the end of the industry perhaps.

The only reason Mandella was detained for so long was because he refused the demand to give up arms. I think he still managed to bring change and a better life for his people. Isn't he an icon of great and meaningful change?

STEVE : One of the greatest.

I still wear my old EBB shirt with the historic protest date lines on the back with great pride. I remember you wore one onstage. What has happened to all that Steve? Was that Edgar's stuff? I wonder where Arthur stands on this?

STEVE : Still wear mine too, got lots of them. Yes Edgar designed that T shirt
but not the CND sign which I also support. Why do you wonder where Arthur stands?

I've admired you all for many years but am so sad to see your writing decrying peaceful protest in the UK like some Tory Red Top rag. If you had been in Parliament Sq with us you would have seen just like in Egypt, it was the Government's thugs who provoked the violence. Yes there will always be an element of trouble makers but that cannot justify the inaction you promote and given your past it seems sad you have opted out or retired from the fray.

STEVE : I did not write decrying peaceful protest but specifically the violence attached and contained within. When the Chinese recently completed the railway into Tibet to encourage trade with Tibetans the DL was interviewed and when asked what he thought of the inevitable Westernisation of Tibetans he said that if that was the will of the people, if that was what they wanted then it was right for them to have it. He absolutely denounced any violent protests. As for the troublemakers, weed ‘em out. If you regularly attend these rallies you know who they are.

The Egyptians, who were mostly peaceful until Mubaraks thugs arrived, have WON the right to have free and fair, democratic elections. Should they not have bothered in case it is a difficult road? Would you not have marched with/ for them?

STEVE : What do you mean by difficult road? I guess you mean dodging a few stones and nasty policemen, as long as its all for the cause eh Aktivo.

Can you quote some of the "many a political activist down the years including Martin Luther King" who paraphrased your words ‘learn nothing,see nothing,change nothing.’? Get real?

STEVE : Why don’t you look them up yourself?

Regarding demos and protest you are certainly not too old. You could still support the fight against cuts in many ways or even march with us.

STEVE : Who said anything about being too old? I love your interpretation although it’s very patronising

Like you, David Bowie told a journalist he had done his political bit, years before. Perhaps you don't think you will be affected by this Condem vandalism. Perhaps you voted for them and are happy with the outcome. How would we know Steve?

STEVE : I've never said that I’d done my political bit and I’ve been suffering political vandalism all my live from all colours of the house. As far as who I voted for well, you should know better. My,my what an angry man you seem Stephen!


Are you totally non violent? Have you never lashed out verbally or physically to get your own way or because you are in pain? Do you not accept that much of what the world has that is good, was fought for?

STEVE : Lashed out? Verbally yes, physically not that I can remember, no. You obviously have thoogh from the wording of the question.


Of course if you are a total pacifist then respect and credit to you. Some thing tells me you would fight when you decided you would though. Am I wrong?

STEVE : Yes! Or at least the point that I would resort to violence resides in me at a much higher threshold than you. You know, family in danger, daughter being raped, that sort of thing.

Contextually your use of words Blind and Deaf would be seen by many today as offensive. Not all linguistic progress is pointless. In the end it is how Deaf and Blind people would feel about it, isn't it?
This was respectfully pointed out to you but you sneered it away with a "Duh". How about too white to care or too male to adapt?

STEVE : Too white to care, too male to adapt? I like that but it doesn’t scan that well. My deaf friends are not as sensitive as all that, especially Deaf Dave, his name for himself. And again, you know the context in which it was used.

Your struggles, as part of the EBB, were magnificent but why stop. Have your ideals changed? We march for those who cannot as well as for ourselves. No one I know who is involved in the protests is advocating violence come and see for yourself.

I don't want to be told, especially by, Steve Broughton of the EBB, that there is no point to political struggle. Who'd have thought it possible?

STEVE : Again, please stop reinterpreting what I actually said.

Still one Broughton with us is a lot better than none.

STEVE : Absolutely, worth tens of you! !

Aktivo not Activo lol( my given name is Stephen)
3:36 PM