RADIO
LEICESTER THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
©
John Denney, 8 DECEMBER 2000
I’ve been
delivering live Thought for the Day messages on Radio Leicester
for many years now, and the brief for these is: to be topical.
I usually wait until the previous evening and check the news
headlines. Last night – and for various reasons I
didn’t get started on the job until 11 o’clock – I
found a mish-mash of different stories that can be read in
differing ways, according to your prejudices. The European
summit in Nice produces a whole crop of spin. The rapid
reaction force - or the seeds of a European army? The Human
rights convention - or the embryonic constitution of a
super-state? Whether Germany should be more equal than the
rest of the members – or whether Germany should have more
votes because of its larger population? Not to mention the
anarchists intent on disrupting the meeting, and the French
gendarmerie intent on thwarting their violent protests.
And then there was
the report that the number of speed cameras on Britain’s
roads is to double. An advance for road safety – or
another jackbooted step towards a police state? And the
saga of the American presidential election. Gore trying to
steal the presidency from the rightful winner – or Bush
trying to get into the White House by a corrupt electoral
process?
So many different
points of view, so many different spins. You pays your
money – and aren’t newspapers getting more and more
expensive these days – and you takes your choice.
But one story
stands out as unspinnable. The killing of young Damilola
Taylor in Peckham appalled the nation. And yesterday, on
what would have been his eleventh birthday, the church, whose
Sunday School Damilola Taylor attended, hosted a memorial service
for him. It was impossible not to have been deeply moved by
the grief of Damilola’s brother Tunde, as he spoke about the
loveable and lively youngster whose life was so cruelly snatched
from him. It was impossible not to respect Tunde’s
courage in admitting to his feelings of guilt for not having been
there to protect his brother. And it was impossible not to
applaud Tunde’s deep Christian certainty that Damilola
is resting in the arms of his Lord. In Tunde’s simple
nobility of grief lie the seeds of victory over the evil that
brought about Damilola Taylor’s death.
It puts the rest
of the news into perspective, doesn't it? The question is,
what really matters – to you?