Good morning, today is a fine day to enjoy everything and anything under the sun. Most of you will probably be enjoying a few cold ones under this heat and spending some time with loved ones and friends, diving straight into a BBQ. It’s a lovely sentiment, and it is made better when plans fully come together, now that we are a little less restricted in our movements, with regards to Covid-19. Imagine the scenario where you can text your friend and exchange a few replies and something tangible actually comes from it, in the form of meeting up at the park and doing the classic extreme Frisbee rules. Now, bear with me on this one it might be difficult to comprehend, imagine, the scenario where you constantly share sentimental ideas about meeting up for a couple of brews, but, then instead you never actually meet up. Instead, you clap outside your window to symbolise your presence with your friends or perhaps sit in silence for the moment passing and you missed the opportunity to sit with your comrades. Time and time again, plans come, and you go through the same motions until your friend eventually just stops texting. Madness, right? So, I ask you this one question, why is it that whenever something significant happens in life, we never really seek out something tangible whether it be large or small? It is a bit of an odd one wouldn’t you say?

I think with everything going on in recent events, it just goes to show the prime examples of this in action. We will encapsulate the entire phenomenon with two examples; first we will dive into the NHS, all our carers and key workers.

Awareness is great but if it is not followed through properly, or in fact, not entirely encompassing the situation, it can be in fact quite detrimental to a cause. Everyone knows of the clapping that occurred every Thursday at 8pm, to give encouragement to the work of everyone still carrying out their duty, to keep this country going and alive. Which in itself is a great sentiment, even embraced by politicians. However, where was this same sentiment when it came to discuss a raise for these peoples wages, so that they may in fact be able to benefit on a more survivable wage, with the added stress of their daily work? Where was the same sentiment when it came to discuss the safety and distribution of resources to these key workers? Where? It just seems that a lot of people would rather take the easy route, of grand gestures like rainbows and clapping, but not continue the path onto something more tangible that would actually make a difference to someone’s life, in the form of extra money to pay bills and more consideration to the stress of their job day to day. But hey, loud decibels in repetition are in season, quite tasty I hear.

Second example, we will dissect, is the more “recent” movement, Black Lives Matter. This has gained a lot of traction recently, since the unlawful murder of George Floyd by a police officer. After, the arrest of being in possession of a counterfeit, $20 note, god forbid you do something so crazy. Since that awful incident, a lot of people have been trying to share the same sentiment on social media, in order to raise more awareness against the racial prejudices, in America, and within their own countries. Again, with gestures like spreading the hashtag, videos, and general messages for people to self-educate to elevate their understanding of the situation, most black people go through day to day. However, as much as a black square somehow sends a message, a lot of people fall under the same habits of sharing sentiment, without following through to something more tangible. It is simply not enough to think to yourself that spreading a few posts, will somehow exonerate you from doing anything further once this trend is over. Jumping on the bandwagon, in order to virtue signal is not acceptable in this case, you need to actually have difficult conversations and physically acknowledge the little things in peoples lives, before you can fully understand the bigger picture.

End of the day, to sum up and to sound less preachy, especially, if that was too long to read, just seek tangible results no matter how small. Even if it is just in the form of colloquial stories. What do I know though, I am only half black and half white. At least I will have a 50% chance of accuracy here.