Chair's Eye View - January 2025

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”

“In the end, we remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right”

Rev Martin Luther King Jnr (1929-1968)

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

 Pastor Martin Niemoller  (1892-1984)

The 20th January marks the 30th Martin Luther King Jnr day, held as a public holiday in the USA.  A well-known civil rights campaigner, assassinated in 1968, his message of principled, non-violent opposition to injustice resonates around the world: especially in times of rising hate. His message, to me, was one of love and understanding to combat the hatred and intolerance of difference.

The 27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day. The poem above is the official rendering used by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a charity set up by the British Government, but Pastor Niemoller was known change the groups mentioned depending upon his audience and purpose. Holocaust Memorial Day remembers all those lost to dehumanising hate and genocide around the world.

And 19th January is World Religion Day. Both Rev Martin Luther King Jnr and Pastor Martin Niemoller were men of devout faith who spoke out against hate, intolerance, and indifference. I know of no world religion that teaches hatred and intolerance towards anyone. Most teach to love and understand, to accept and respect difference. They call upon their faithful to stand up for the rights of those less fortunate than oneself: to share good fortune and fight against poverty and injustice wherever it is found.

As we celebrate the New Year, and some of us make our new year resolutions, it seems to me that these three dates, all falling at the start of the year as they do, call on all of us to reach out our arms to our fellow human beings in order to lift them up regardless of any differences we may have. To look with fresh eyes at the world and recommit to eradicating poverty, injustice, and intolerance. And to stand together and speak out against violence, hatred and dehumanisation.

By standing together in our common humanity, we can make this world a better place for all. And that is my New Years Resolution, what’s yours?

Saorsa-Amatheia Tweedale