As I sit in bed in the peaceful city of Edinburgh and watch with horror as scenes of violence unfold in my local area, I can’t help but feel that this was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode nationwide. Each and every day as I walk around my local Borough of Hackney I see disillusioned young men and women with no sense of ambition, hope or possibility wandering the streets with anger, fear and sadness ingrained into their prematurely aged faces. Without proper guidance, support and love why would anyone feel a sense of pride for their community or even their own lives?
A generation of parents raised their children without discipline or empathy and cyclically a generation of children have grown up without a sense of right and wrong. The fires that ravage the city reflect the fire of angst raging inside these young peoples’ hearts. My mother and sister are teachers and their focus has always been to connect with young minds and inspire them to believe they can achieve their dreams and will be given ample support to do so, should they wish to take it. This connection has for the most part been lost between the family units in communities facing increased financial strain and lack of government support and so the parents have passed on this dreary message of ‘don’t retain hope, because we know it doesn’t exist’. They have given up caring about the repercussions of their actions because their country has given up caring about them.
I don’t blame them. Yes the mindless violence, vandalism and theft has brought me to tears over the past 48 hours as I watch the live feed on the BBC News website from my placid surroundings in Scotland, but a tear must be shed for both sides of this societal meltdown. The men and women of the police, ambulance and fire services must of course be commended beyond reproach and the sympathy for the home owners, businesses and innocent passers by affected by these riots must be boundless. However I shed a tear for the angry young thugs exacting this mindless revenge upon a city they believe has given up on them too. Why? Because I don’t believe anyone is born bad.
I have spent numerous hours taking a plethora of mind-altering drugs, drinking until I was mindlessly violent, being arrested for assault and rebelling against various issues and insecurities I had to deal with as I grew from childhood into adulthood. All of this affected me even though I had the privilege of a safe home, financial security and love in various forms. The reality is that it was the inspiring teacher at school, the strict but fair football coach, the rehab centre founder and most importantly the loving parents, that taught me right from wrong and what a limitless scope of possibilities in life lay before me. At 27 years of age I am still struggling to contain, manage and rectify my own issues but these people and their support gave me the tools I needed to work them out and avoid an upsetting and wasteful loss of life like the tainted talent that was Amy Winehouse. Without these people and without support I may have ended up dead from substance abuse or living a life of violent misdemeanours due to never dealing with my personal anger.
In short, the parents of these young people need to be stirred into peaceful action to speak out for support, without fists or fire, and stand in solidarity with their angry children and the decent people within their local community to demand change from our government. David Cameron and his Tory cronies have lambasted the behavior of this mob and whilst I know now that robust action and a powerful response IS needed to ensure the safety of innocent men and women, the greater problem that needs to be faced is still ahead of us.
The money spent on rebuilding our city, making in excess of 450 arrests and the resulting prison sentences some of these thugs will be now facing, could have been spent on educating, supporting and inspiring the same young minds to believe that a future filled with hope lays ahead of them. That needs to be our focus moving forward and Cameron and the Mayor of London must step up to the mark and implement real change to ensure this task is attended to.
Without the possibility of civilized futures is it any wonder so many have become animals?