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Feb. 2nd, 2011 06:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hathycolWah, I have a cold. I am resisting the urge to rip my eye out to get at my sinuses. Long term I suspect this will cause more problems but ARGH. I would give my left leg for a night of unbroken sleep and a day without sneezing. Oh well.
The world is full of young people protesting. On Saturday, I will be one of them. (Admittedly whilst wrapped up in about eighteen layers and sneezing.) Merseyside March Against The Cuts is happening this Saturday and I shall be there.
You see, I am technically doing rather well out of these cuts. I have no children. I am not ill. I'm not a student right now nor do I plan to be again in the future. I work in the private sector. I'm getting married, so I'll even get a tax break next year. Life is just spiffy for me!
And whilst I am okay with life being just spiffy for me, I disagree so wholeheartedly with the cuts that I wouldn't feel right in myself if I didn't go. The tipping point for me has been the libraries. The point of civilisation is not to generate wealth, or materialism. The sign of a truly civilised nation is being willing and able to enrich its citizens in more than just the basic ways. You need to feed their bodies and feed their minds - jobs and education, in other words.
If you're going to cheerfully discourage a generation of working class kids from college by taking away the EMA, by making sure they're in debt for the rest of their lives just to go to university, then for god's sake, at least let them be able to read. "Libraries are pointless, you can get it all online." No, you can't. Libraries are vital for any and all civilisations and I am fed up of keeping quiet at slashing changes to everything I hold dear.
So I shall be at Liverpool Town Hall on Saturday at 11am, quietly and unobtrusively, but I will make sure that I am one more person attempting to stand up and be counted against these cuts.
(Also, Tony Benn is speaking. Surely I don't need to persuade anyone further?)
The world is full of young people protesting. On Saturday, I will be one of them. (Admittedly whilst wrapped up in about eighteen layers and sneezing.) Merseyside March Against The Cuts is happening this Saturday and I shall be there.
You see, I am technically doing rather well out of these cuts. I have no children. I am not ill. I'm not a student right now nor do I plan to be again in the future. I work in the private sector. I'm getting married, so I'll even get a tax break next year. Life is just spiffy for me!
And whilst I am okay with life being just spiffy for me, I disagree so wholeheartedly with the cuts that I wouldn't feel right in myself if I didn't go. The tipping point for me has been the libraries. The point of civilisation is not to generate wealth, or materialism. The sign of a truly civilised nation is being willing and able to enrich its citizens in more than just the basic ways. You need to feed their bodies and feed their minds - jobs and education, in other words.
If you're going to cheerfully discourage a generation of working class kids from college by taking away the EMA, by making sure they're in debt for the rest of their lives just to go to university, then for god's sake, at least let them be able to read. "Libraries are pointless, you can get it all online." No, you can't. Libraries are vital for any and all civilisations and I am fed up of keeping quiet at slashing changes to everything I hold dear.
So I shall be at Liverpool Town Hall on Saturday at 11am, quietly and unobtrusively, but I will make sure that I am one more person attempting to stand up and be counted against these cuts.
(Also, Tony Benn is speaking. Surely I don't need to persuade anyone further?)
