Monochrome Minds

Can't think why I bother. Can't think of anything to write about. Oh yes I can. I saw Dan Cruickshank's two programmes about Israel/Palestine and Iraq over the weekend. Always interesting is our Dan with his grown-up version of Louis Theroux's naive interview technique and his stiff-upper-lip-yet-about-to-cry demeanour at the injustice of what we have done to our history. Do you remember the story of the two groups of monks fighting at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? Well Dan visited them and got caught up in what seems like a very unholy rivalry. He went to the Eithiopian Orthodox chapel on the roof but was asked to leave by the Police (whoever they are in such a fractured state) after the Egyptian Coptic Monks objected. Inside the Church itself (on a Sunday) there were many Christian Denominations vying for control with what seemed to be a competition to sing the loudest. A sort of sideshow to the main event of Jew vs Muslim. We need more of the co-operation and brotherhood shown in the recent visit by a group of Jewish and Arab Israelis to Auschwitz but of course the people who really need to go on this sort of visit are the sort who shout "no surrender" and refuse to bend. A sort of version of the only people fit to govern are the ones who do not want to govern. The best Government is that which Governs least. I can't find out who said that because it seems Thoreau said it at the start of an important pamphlet but it was originally said by Thomas Jefferson. I seem to recall from Bill Bryson's "Made in America" that Thomas Paine had something to do with it. I hesitate to admit it but I think that Thomas Paine is a very distant relative of mine. My Grandmother's maiden name was Lois Paine though our Family tree which goes back along the Paine line has a number of different spellings. I should check it up one day to be certain.

It manus in gyrum; Paullatin singula vires. Depedunt proplas; color est E pluribus unum.