Today I Marched

Today I Marched

 

"Today I marched for Europe. I marched with babies in slings and
buggies and toddlers on shoulders. I marched with teenagers and
20-somethings who bristled with betrayal. I marched with flat-capped
socialists and hippies blowing bubbles. I marched with people in
wheelchairs, on bikes and with walking sticks. We marched past people
who ignored us, a few who booed us and lots who cheered and gave us
thumbs up and sounded horns and we applauded every one of them. Bus
drivers honked their support and chambermaids in five-star hotels waved and clapped from windows high above us.

We marched with humour and with terrible EU puns (I will always love
EU; never gonna give EU up) on professionally-printed signs and on bits
of torn cardboard and pizza boxes, written in felt-tip pen. We sang and
danced and chanted, applauded, whistled and cheered. Passing Downing
Street, we chanted “Shame on You” and it was the only negative point of
the day. All ages, nationalities, genders, religions, ethnic and
economic backgrounds, stronger together. We stood in the shadow of Big
Ben and listened to a pre-teen, an MP, a refugee, a journalist, a
comedian and an 85-year-old woman who brought tears to more than just my
eyes with her anger and shame.

I am too battle-weary and cynical
to think I will change anything. I have walked those streets before,
placard in hand, anger in heart. I have marched against war and
austerity and for refugees, I have marched against taxes that make those
with least suffer the most, policies that make education and health
services suffer and that punish those who wish only to better
themselves. And I’ve made not a sliver of difference. Today, I can’t
speak for those who marched with me; I can’t know their motivations. I
can only know mine."

 

People hold banners during a "March for Europe" demonstration against
Britain's decision to leave the European Union, in central London,
Britain, July 2, 2016. Britain voted to leave the European Union in the
EU Brexit referendum.