On March 13th 1996 I was at the HQ of the monopoly telecommunications provider in Cayman exploring a joint venture around business internet. They were showing me and my colleague their (at the time) fast internet by demonstrating the relatively new BBC website. As they did so, a “breaking news” item came on, that there had been a mass shooting at a primary school in the UK, what became known as the Dunblane Massacre. I will always remember that moment, everyone in the room was frozen and we simply watched the news for what seemed like hours.
Soon after that, the UK enacted gun control laws which radically restricted the right to own a firearm. As an example, this included those who competed at national and international level in competitive handgun shooting, such that from then on they had to train overseas. Since 1996 there have been no school shootings in the UK.
Yesterday yet another school massacre happened in the USA. At the base of this blog you can see the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, Steve Kerr, deliver an emotional address which, I feel, speaks for so many Americans who simply cannot understand why their politicians refuse to act.
As I watched his display of leadership, I felt, for a moment, hopeless. Over four years ago I felt a catalysing moment had come after the Parkland school massacre with a group of high school seniors from Parkland, led by Emma Gonzalez, committing to build a movement for change. In March 2018 I wrote, hopefully: “Emma, the world is changed by your example“, yet still nothing has changed. I do encourage you to watch her speech embedded in that post, it is truly moving.
So, where can I, where can we look to in order to maintain hope. My thoughts go to the words and the poetry of Maya Angelou focussed on the continuing fight for racial equity and equality in the USA and globally. Slavery took well over a century to abolish, then over a century for the civil rights act, yet we still see institutional racism in the USA and yes, the UK. In July 2021 wrote: “How can you keep rising up time after time?” as a young black man missed a vital penalty kick for the English national football team, then everyone knew that disgusting racist invective would be spewed at them. This is the world we still live in.
I included in that post the complete poem from Maya Angelou and finished that post with these words:
I do not know how one can rise time after time, but I am so glad of it. That kind of strength and determination is the best of humanity, and I have to keep believing that love wins and will always win. It is just taking so, so long for the change to come.
Over to you, Steve Kerr: