Secular Thought for the Day

By Clare Topic

A very great man named Arthur Ashe was a very successful tennis player, mostly remembered for winning Wimbledon. Terminally ill with HIV Aids, contracted from a contaminated blood transfusion, he gave an interview to the BBC at the end of which he was asked if he cursed the fates for his illness. I cannot quote him exactly but essentially this is what he said: ”If I were to curse the fates for this illness then what right would I have to claim my achievements as my own and not handed to me from some higher power? “I thought that was an astonishing piece of wisdom and grace and that is why Arthur Ashe is on my list of greatest human beings.

I try to implement that philosophy in my own life but also I believe that society should do the same. As a society Britain likes to take great credit for their heroes, such as Oscar winning actors, olympic champions, nobel prize winners, etc. An Oscar for Kate Winslett was recently heralded as a great night for Britain. While nobody would ever claim that Kate’s success comes from anything other than her own hard work and inborn talent, Britain likes to attribute the environment and culture she grew up in as being a part of the reason for her success and believes that her success reflects well on Britain. If Britain wishes to herald their success stories as a product of British society, then they also have to take responsibility for those less successful Brits.

Just as some in Austria are questioning their society and its role in the Josef Frtizl crimes, should not Britain reflect on the violence that is also a product of their society and they should perhaps from time to time re-examine their culture and way of life to see what, if anything is lacking. It is not just the outrages committed by the likes of Harold Shipmen or Peter Suttcliffe that should make us re-examine ourselves, but every time a violent act occurs, be it a drunken brawl, domestic violence or a mugging in the street. It is all very well to call for these criminals to be put away and locked up, but we also have to examine ourselves as a society because, although everyone is responsible for their own actions and nobody else, we are all responsible for the environment which set these people on the path to violence. We have also to acknowledge that we owe these people a duty of care to attempt to rehabilitate them, even if it costs money. We cannot wash our hands of them because they are bad people. This is very difficult; it is everyone’s instinct to shy away from the violent, the unsuccessful and the antisocial. If we do not claim them as our own, however, we cannot in honesty claim the successes which we so love to celebrate. There is a word for this. It is called Citizenship.