This isn’t a post about politics. It’s about how I am seeing a really ugly side to the way we are dealing with politics in Ireland. I am not political in any way. I couldn’t be a politician.
However, in the last few weeks, any aspirations I might have had deep down somewhere in my body disappeared on witnessing the way they have been treated by members of the public.
Three incidents in the last month stand out to me. As a teacher, I was very disappointed to see the behaviour of secondary school teachers at the ASTI conference. The treatment of Ruairi Quinn was appalling. One ASTI member grabbed most of the headlines with his megaphone (Below: credit- Irish Independent) but there can’t be too many others in the room who clapped and jeered over the whole of Quinn’s speech that can feel proud of themselves. Whatever people’s thoughts on Quinn, when he is invited to speak, one has to let him speak. There are better ways to show disapproval. Perhaps not inviting him the next time would be better.
The other two incidents I noticed were both during the canvassing for the local elections. One involved a lady in Westmeath who gained media attention when she was hit with a litter fine after tearing up a councillor’s leaflet and throwing the pieces at him. On the radio, she also noted that she did swear at him and behaved aggressively.
Another incident occurred in Cork when a councillor was physically attacked and scratched to his face, (see photo above. Credit: The Journal).
However, the most worrying thing for me is that there are a large number of people that defend the actions of these people. Jeering, heckling, swearing, flinging things and scratching are defended. Often, this is because they claim the people haven’t been listening to them.
However, no matter how little someone listens to you, is the answer violence or aggression? Furthermore, if someone loses it, (and I can only hope this was the case in all the above incidents), can it be defended?
As a society, we have to condemn bad behaviour. We can certainly understand the root of it, but we can’t condone it. If we accept aggression as an acceptable way of dealing with things, the bar gets set higher and higher of what is considered acceptable.
There are certain politicians I won’t be voting for. When they come canvassing, I listen to what they have to say, take their leaflet and say thank you. If it is someone I’m thinking of voting for, I’ll ask them about particular issues and thank them when they leave.
As far as I know, this is how one is supposed to behave. It’s the way I pass on to all the children I teach and I always condemn any time they use violence as a means to resolve a situation even when they think they are right. Even when others defend them, I keep steadfast on this. However, it is going to become more difficult to convince the children I teach that aggression is not the answer when there are a large number of adults behaving aggressively. It’s even more difficult when children see people that they tend to respect defending this aggression.