Murphy's letter from Edinburgh

 

No Room for Bigotry or Racism

I often wonder why there is so much bigotry and racism on the planet that we live on and why it appears to be escalating as the population on planet earth expands.

We live on a planet that has over 6 billion people living on it, and it is rising all the time as new children are born and people are living longer.  Yet many parts of the world are in total chaos on the grounds of religion and the colour of someone else's skin.

Is it not about time for people to look at the history of the past and learn so that we can move in to the future without these hideous throwbacks from the middle ages that have blighted the people of this planet right up to the present day on the grounds of belief and colour?

In Scotland we are tackling the problems that are associated with bigotry and racism which prevents people from moving forward so that they can live in peace and harmony.  It has taken a long time in historical terms for people to come together and throw off the shackles of the past, and religious beliefs that people have fought and murdered over.

As a child growing up in the 1950s I was sent to church.  My granddad pointed out of the window to the church that I was to go too.  But there were two churches standing together, and as things went, I went to the wrong church.  I went to the church and Sunday school for about four weeks until one day I was asked about the service.  When I told them about the service I got a good thumping because I had gone to the wrong church.  So the following week I went to the other church, but I failed to see what the difference was.

In those days as a child I was not supposed to play with catholic children who lived and went to school with me.  I ignored everything that they said because as a child at the age I was, I was not interested if someone was Protestant, Catholic, Jewish or Muslim.  These were the older generations beliefs and not mine, but these were the types of beliefs that I was supposed to grow up with according to the older generation.

The divide in religion was quite wide in those days between Protestants and Catholics, but how can someone tell someone else that on the grounds of religion who and why you can't play and grow up as children learning about each others beliefs?  I never saw any sense in it and went to my friends church, and he came to mine without our guardians knowing anything about it.  I call it expanding the mind, and it may now be the time for a lot more people to do it.

I went to many other churches and places of worship without telling my grandparents because I already knew what the outcome would have been.  But in my journey as a child I was told that god was an all embracing god despite colour, religion, or race, but according to the human race, they continue to make their own interpretation on what god said, often failing in their understanding what an all embracing god is.

When you look at the history of the past we were fighting with almost everyone on the grounds of religion, and in many parts of the world this still goes on.  Scotland still has bigots who are a dying breed as more people see the stupidness of fighting someone on the grounds of their beliefs in religion.  Normally something that has been passed down from generation to generation and often through ignorance on their part.

Bigotry and racism are an appalling part of the human make up and it is normally perpetuated by people who are living in the past.  It's now time for these people to move in to the 21st century as we face overpopulation, global warming, genocide and all the other issues that we should be tackling without tearing each other apart on some belief that came from bigots and racists in the first place.

Planet earth faces some of the biggest challenges that man has ever faced in the history of the human race, and these are the problems that we should be working on instead of arguing on the grounds of religion and race.

I must say that I am glad that I live in a country that is tackling the issues that have blighted it for so long with no advantage to anyone at the end of it.

Scotland is moving forward and so are its people, all we need is the rest of the world to follow us on the same issues that effects people all over the world.

Written by Andrew Murphy 15 March 2006

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