One of the hardest things to do is to put the toothpaste back into the tube. One of the even harder things to do is to speak wounding words and try to persuade those we have hurt that it was just politics, it wasn't personal, it was the heat of argument and we now move on. The First Minister says he will expect to conduct negotiations in the event of a Yes vote in a spirit of 'comradely friendship'. What in the name of the wee man does that sound like to all those other people (near 60 million of them) who have been lumped together in the Westminster and England bashing of the past months?
I get it that the Better Together campaign represents the stutus quo, and that the status quo needs radical and long reaching change. I also get it that there is an historic patronising and complacent attitude of taking Scotland for granted. And I am old enough to remember Winnie Ewing winning Hamilton, and Margo MacDonald winning in Govan, and have long understood the vision and excitement of those who long for an independent Scotland. I also realise that in the give and take of politics, that for the players in these brutal political tennis rallies in which facts are hammered across a dividing net with cut, volley and smash, it's the winning that counts, not the feelings of the opponent, or the way you win even if you win ugly. But there the analogy stops and the rally loses its cogency as metaphor.
This isn't a tennis match. This is a huge argument about our future, and the future of these islands - not just Scotland. National pride and longing, passion for change and long term discontent with the way things are, concern for our own and our childfen's futures, and the darker impulses of self-interest, getting even and nurtured resentment all coalesce and challenge the integrity and viability of mutual and reciprocal relationships centuries old. What we say in order to persuade our side to vote our way, especially when it is dismissive, abusive and at times offensive to those others with whom we share these islands will have a long half-life. It isn't possible to portray a people as the cause of all our griefs, to impugn motive and exaggerate differences, to vilify and try to silence voices on the other side which don't want us to go, and then assume we will sit down in comradely friendship - without even an apology, which if it comes will come too late - the toothpaste is out of the tube.
As a Christian I am embarrassed at much of the discourse of those who represent the Scottish people at Government level rubbishing all that has been achieved together; as I am embarrassed at much of the discourse of those who represent Scottish people at Westminster who at times have behaved and spoken disgracefully towards the rightful aspirations of a people to be self- determining through agreed democratic process. Lying, bullying, intimidation, demonising, orchestrating of institutions - the darker tones of political manipulation are well enough documented.
Whether the answer is Yes or No to Independence, we will live next door to neighbours who since the Union have shared some of our darkest and lightest experiences as a nation. In order to win Independence, there is no need to abuse our neighbours and cast up all our resentments and grievances just to win support by creating a climate of complaint and reserntment. These are not emotions that go away easily - and they will simmer on both sides of the border long after Friday's announcement.
So as a Christian, I am already committed to a ministry of reconciliation, a call to peacemaking, to live as a forgiven forgiver, to see and affirm and respect in each person I meet that of Christ, to see dividing walls of hostility as barriers to be subverted, and to hope and work for that Kingdom of daily bread for each child of God, to offer and work for forgiveness and reconciliation, and to stand with courage against those forces and influences that thwart justice, oppress the vulnerable and drain the eneergy and joy our of people's lives.
Amen, Jim. We're all going to need healing and reconciliation after this.
Posted by: chris | September 17, 2014 at 06:19 PM