Shaking with Fury

[davidgillon]

It's bad enough we have UKIP on the streets of Rochester because of the by-election, but today we had the fascists of BritainFirst blaring patriotic songs and waving Union Flags and the St George's Crosses in front of the War Memorial.

The friend I was with was shopping in the grocer's across the street and I was quietly seething at everything they were doing - when they started playing Jerusalem I commented that it was like Springtime for Hitler In Germany come to life and that they'd have been better off with Wagner.

They were leaving as we came out of the shop and I realised that 8-10 of them had surrounded a young black woman who was sitting on the wall. Apparently they had demanded to know if she was English. She was holding her own, but she was one small woman surrounded by 8-10 racist thugs, all but one of them male. I just though 'Oh, Hell' and walked into the middle of it, gesturing with my crutch and saying 'There's none of you ever more than 5 seconds away from becoming a minority and being attacked in the street by people like you.'  I certainly didn't calm the situation, but I diverted half of them on to me, and I had the chance to tell them that I despised them, that I particularly despised them parading in front of the memorial to people who died fighting against everything they stood for, and that if they really love everything England stands for then they should emigrate ;)

It went back and forth for about five minutes, with amongst other stuff the Britain First woman (ETA: who I've now identified as their candidate and deputy leaderr Jayda Fransen) trying to claim mosques were centres of terrorism, but a couple of them (they'd be the really dangerous ones) realised that being seen harassing a slight young woman and a disabled guy probably wasn't the image they wanted (though it's the only one they'll ever have) and they beat a retreat.

I imagine they'll claim they weren't harassing anyone, but that's belied by how upset their victim was afterwards (and kudos to her for standing up to them).

One of the people who came up afterwards (and if I have the right guy he's a local folksinger who writes some absolutely haunting stuff about social deprivation in Medway) commented that the UKIP supporters and the England First thugs had been being very pally with each other earlier - takes one to know one, I guess....

I'd been thinking about Pastor Niemoller's prayer while I was watching them, I guess I passed.

Comments

[hairyears]

I just read this, tracked back from a link in your DW about Jayda Fransen.

I am quite impressed by this: I would weigh it carefully, before committing to the course of action you took - I have acquaintances who were never the same again after repeated kicks to the head when the National Front got them down on the concrete - and I am rather more expert in violence than you might think.

I probably would have intervened.

You and I should talk about this sometime. In particular, I should talk to you about some friends of mine who have taught two students with severe mobility problems to Dan grade (black belt) in the art I practice, and saw them graded on the mat at the Headquarters Dojo in their wheelchairs.

My fellow-student and regular practice partner at Headquarters - and my grading partner or ukemi (we don't say 'opponent') in my Third Dan grading - was the grading partner for one of these students, about a month ago.

I have no idea what you can be taught; but awareness, resilience and survivability, and the arts of deconfliction and de-escalation would be useful to you in a place where incidents like this are common, and interventions like yours are a necessity.

If you can get to Gravesend, I can find you a teacher.

If you choose to watch a class, be warned that it will look nothing like your preconceptions of a 'martial art'.

[davidgillon]

Thanks. Thought process as I crossed the road was "I may get a good kicking here, but I still win if that happens." I knew the risk. What perhaps doesn't come out in the description is just how many people were watching, horrified. I couldn't do that. But there was no shortage of witnesses.

In general I'm not in a high risk area. That's only the second time I've ended up in a physical confrontation since moving here in 1985. The other one was in the '90s with someone who thought it would funny to knock over the guy on crutches - I saw him coming, offered him my back to grab at, then hit him as soon as he made his move - with the crutch. (I was in a particularly foul mood, I might have avoided it in normal circumstances)

While not a practitioner, I've talked to practitioners of a few arts over the years - aikido, wing chun, and chen taiji, so I have a fair idea of the variety out there. The problem is I'm dealing with both extremely poor proprioception, and a disabling degree of hypermobility. Essentially I can injure joints just by looking at them wrong. So the practicality of any kind of active training is open to question.

[hairyears]

I would expect improvement in proprioception to be noticable, perhaps even substantial, unless there is a severe limiting neurological or spinal pathology.

Proprioception is very, very 'trainable'.

Practicing with severe hypermobility is another matter. I can ask HQ for formal guidance but it may well be 'No'.

Mild-to-moderate hypermobility, the advice will probably be to work within the framework of relationship with a physiotherapist: the exercises of an Aikido class extend your range of movement in parallel with strengthening and stabilising your joints.

The exercises we use to strengthen and stabilise are effective for most of the general population, but not good enough for people with hypermobility. We would need a student to work with a qualified physiotherapist, to confirm that their joint stability is improving during the time they are practicing; and to advise on whether each exercise was safe, or best deferred until specific improvements in stability are measured, or vetoed altogether.

I would stress that this is a personal opinion: our insurers could say no; or impose additional requirements for both the practice itself, and the monitoring, that make it effectively impossible to teach that student.

And anyway, it's not my decision to make!

Ask anyway. We can and do both teach and grade students who require a modified syllabus that excludes exercises that they cannot or should not do. I say 'modified', rather than 'limited', because we look to bring them up to the overall standard of our kyu and Dan grades by strengthening the abilities and exercises that you *can* practice.

[davidgillon]

I've had strong suggestions I'm dyspraxic as well as hypermobile, so a double dose of the messed up proprioception, and perhaps a limit on the potential for improvement.

A physio described my existing range of movement as "ridiculous", so not looking to improve that, thanks!

Having considered it, and I'm impressed that you appreciate the risk factors, the thing I think I have to consider is that I've just managed to stabilise my shoulders, after regular issues going back pretty much to the millennium. That was in fact the reason I switched to the chair, crutches were part of the problem. I'm reluctant to do anything that might put that at risk, given I depend on my arms for mobility.

So thanks for the offer, but I'm going to say no thanks.

[hairyears]

Fair enough: I hope you do keep looking for an art that can teach you.

I would say 'hope it gets better' but I know all too well that's not really true for most people with hypermobility. My partner has EDS: it gets better-controlled, but that's it. With splinting and carefully directed exercise under the direction of the physiotherapist, it'll get worse at a manageable rate.

I wish you well in the Medway towns: we had a look at living there, and visited on a day with temperature inversion - even worse air quality than here! - and UKIP out campaigning.

Hopefully you see less of the EDL and EF: like the NF and the BNP, they never really go away, but they can be kept down and kept back,if people stand up to them.

[davidgillon]

My partner has EDS

We get everywhere ;)

[hairyears]

Also: you weighed the risk and you still did it.

There are better things than bravery and tbis is one of them.