folio

I do not care if the hard right — atheist, Christian or Muslim — call me a woke lefty liberal snowflake.

For me, being a woke lefty liberal snowflake means caring for the lives of others. To stand with those who for generations have faced societal discrimination, deprived of their natural rights.

It is to acknowledge that all people have the right to be treated fairly and decently. It means caring for those left behind by society. To feed the poor. To enable those without means to freely access healthcare.

It is to share of your provision, through good will, with those without. To raise others up. To sustain a vision of society in which the strong help the weak, and do not just trample on them or kick them aside.

It is recognising that everyone has the right to redemption, that everyone can escape their past, that all people, male and female, wherever they’re from and whatever they’ve seen, have the right to pursue comfort, safety and security.

I will take that vision any time over harsh, unforgiving, selfish, supremacist ideologies which judge their opponents as undeserving of compassion, mercy or fairness. I will embrace broad inclusivity over narrow, discriminatory definitions of belonging.

Always, I will stand with the people of action, who strive to make lives better, and ignore those capable only of sowing seeds of discord and hatred, who have nothing to contribute but sour words and self-righteousness.

You could call me a woke lefty liberal snowflake. You could also call me a follower of the middle way. Or one striving to bring about a state of safety and health within and without. Such a person is also known as a Muslim.