Plus Or Minus?..... An Antidote…….To Quote Mr Bowie…. Â
by Bernie Bell - 08:23 on 01 August 2025
Plus Or Minus?....
We went into Kirkwall, and I went to the loo in the Town Hall. On the back of the cubicle door is a little notice, which I think is A GOOD THING.....
I posted this on my Facebook page, and received the following response….
Laura…..
“Far more edifying than the Islamophobic graffiti in the ladies' at Lancaster Bus Station. The door had been given a cursory wipe only to be scrawled over again . Awful”
I replied…….
“It’s fed by the Media, and by Governments. A 'bogey-man' is useful as a distraction.
It’s a vicious circle – the kind of people who scrawl on toilet doors, will be the kind of people who would scrawl those kind of things. Try not to despair, Laura – there are also folk who don’t think that way – but they don’t scrawl on toilet doors – they’re more likely to present a thought-out point of view in a discussion.
I’d say that the best way for an individual to avoid developing that kind of attitude, is to grow up with people from all kinds of places - as in the song about Liverpool by The Dubliners…
“There's every race and colour of face, there's every kind of name
But the pigeons on the pier head they treat you all the same.”
I would have thought that might be true of Lancaster, which is a big city. The toilet door scrawlers are, hopefully, not typical of Lancastrians.
Maybe have a fat felt-tip pen handy and cover it. I’m not kidding! “
Laura…
“It was offensive and witless ..had I wielded a Sharpie to add my two pennyworth I probably would have felt compelled to revisit the bog.
Righteous indignation takes up so much time.
See Ed Reardon's Week”
Me…
“I was thinking more about this, and thinking how wrong it is that a good-hearted person goes to a public toilet and is faced with that - a glaring example of the worst in people. I was then thinking of a kind of guerrilla positive response to it.
Have a pen with you and write plus things to counter-act the minus…… ‘All are one and one is all’…….‘We are of one blood thou and I’……..’Do as you would be done by’.
That might seem a bit wet and useless but – what else is there to do?
It starts at home – can be shifted in schools if schools make an effort to educate. Otherwise – as with a lot of things - do what you can and try, try not to let it bring you down or take you up in a way that’s harmful to you. Sorry if I come across as being preachy but ……I honestly can see how I’d feel in the same situation – the opposite of why I was so pleased to see the good message in the cubicle - and am trying to work round it with you.
How people can be gets me down badly at times – one of my main reminders to myself is that for every hurt there are a hundred kindnesses, individually and collectively. There are, and I focus on that – otherwise I’d end up back in the Pit or the Wasteland…….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/04/13/the-pit-the-wasteland/
NIL DESPERANDUM!”
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An Antidote….
….to the toilet-wall scrawlers of this world…..
Someone advised me to look at the work of Richard Long……I did ….
His work reminded me of…..
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=16459
It’s good to know that these people exist.
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To Quote Mr Bowie….
Ch-ch-ch-changes….
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2025/07/30/northernexposure-2025/
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