Email #35

Dear Harriet

I missed a day yesterday, I was simply too tired after a long day to do anything other than go to bed. Unfortunately that is depression for you.  Not some "holy grail" for the unemployed as a certain Katie Hopkins likes to Tweet, but a psychological condition that can be at best draining and at worst physically disabling.

So what was I up to this time?  Well I was gathered with 11k other people at the Amex stadium.  It was one of those moments where my secular life and my spiritual life intermingle in the most bizarre of ways.  As I updated my facebook status I chuckled inwardly at the confusion it would cause later.  Because everyone would assume I was at the Amex for a football match or for some other work related event. No.  I was with 11k other Catholics from the diocese of A&B celebrating our Jubliee with our newly appointed Bishop.

It was a beautiful day, and it was a good day to be a Catholic.  I am quite private about my faith; it isnt something I share lightly, nor discuss often.  For me, faith is a private matter that I express in my own way.  I take my lead from Christ himself, who spoke against outward piety.  Therefore I rarely talk about how I practice my Catholicism other that when I have to timetable work around Christian festivals (traditionally games are played on Boxing day and Easter Saturday and Easter Monday) the only exception being when I told everyone I knew as I was so filled with pride (my priest assures me motherly pride is allowed!) when my son served at Midnight Mass last year as our parish is the Cathedral parish that was chosen for the televised mass.   But yesterday made me reflect on my spiritual journey and I remembered again why I feel such joy at being a Catholic.

I have always felt a strong conviction with my calling to be a Catholic.  And that is the same conviction with which I write to you as a social activist.  I feel called to DO something.

Because all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do NOTHING.

We cannot sit quietly by the sidelines any more.

I feel as passionately about my Catholicism, and about my social activism as I do my work.

I do not sit quietly on a bench, watching a game silently.  I complain when things go wrong, I rejoice when things go right. And when I feel it necessary I stand up.  When someone is down, I get up, I help them up.  When someone is being trampled on in the middle of an on-pitch punch-up, I go into the brawl and I pull the vulnerable out.  That is my job. That is my life. That has always been my calling. To fight.  Where I see injustice, I fight.

Because if I do not, who will?
I urge you, therefore, Harriet, interim or not, to fight with me.  Fight for me.  Fight for us all.  Fight against the oppression we face.  Because this battle is bloody.  The interim government already has blood on its hands.

Do not turn your back.

Because if Labour turns its back on the vulnerable, the electorate will never forgive you.

Constituent, Labour Party member, Union member, sleep deprived carer, concerned citizen, self employed mother, mother of a teenager with ASD, socialist, environmentalist, Disabled Rights supporter, Jeremy Corbyn supporter, mother feeding her children with nectar points, defender of the vulnerable, advocate, logistics savant, concerned niece, grassroots activist, anti austerity campaigner, RNLI supporter, unashamed welfare state service user & social housing tenant, protester, fire brigade supporter, carers allowance claimant, less than perfect parent, socialist agitator, worrier, mental health service user, football mum, social justice campaigner, immigrant, proletarian, CND supporter, #endausteritynow campaigner, someone with nothing better to do than wait for a plumber, cost cutting football medic, Catholic