It’s been a raggedy old week. There’s a wrecking ball out there in the political and international sphere, frightening stories of tribalism turning into hatred and people feeling scared and fed up. At times it has seemed that the whole nation is angry about something. And in the middle of it all, the World Cup in what some may see as some eyebrow-raising locations, or eyeball-rolling locations.
All of which makes us think, again, about flags. Which flag, where to put it, what to put on it, who can put it up or take it down?
Here at Commonside we have welcomed the World Cup as an occasion that has selected the flags for us and we’re putting them all up. We have four sets of bunting, because ‘someone’ pressed the button twice and ordered not two but four. So, cash-strapped charity that we are, you can be sure we will make excellent use of them. We used a set at Mitcham Carnival last Sunday, woven around the back of our newly refurbished large gazebo. There’s a story about that too, involving a damaged leg and three windswept police officers in a field, and our ordering not one, but two of the ‘wrong sort of legs’ before, 18 months later, we managed to fix the right leg on the right gazebo.
But back to the flags. At Mitcham Carnival they provided a positive talking point: did we know what they all were? (we did not, pace DR Congo but now we know we won’t forget – and there are no doubt a lot of other things about DR Congo that we should not forget), who could recognise the flag of their favourite team?, who wanted a photo in front of which flag? All in all it was a pleasant experience.
We’d have put them out to fly again last night but being a motley-crewed community centre, we didn’t actually have an able-bodied caretaker on duty yesterday who could run themselves up a ladder to do the job. But fear not, they will be flying with gusto indoors and out from next week onwards. We need to get our money’s worth!
The thought-provoking flag story this week however, comes from what could have been a ‘nasty local spat’ but because none of the parties involved wanted anything like that, became a surprisingly heart-warming episode.
My daughter Claudia died as a result of a road-traffic accident in 2014 at the age of just 17. She died locally and you can still read part of her story here:
https://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/pictures/claudialanda/
Two weeks ago I noticed that at the post where I put commemorative decorations twice a year, someone had raised the St George’s flag on the same post. They had put up a total of three, and one was on ‘Claudia’s post’. This upset me but I also knew I didn’t want a fight as fighting over a dead body wasn’t even a human reaction. So I reached out to people I knew. I know a lot of people because I run a community centre, we try to help people and we work in partnership. Someone knew someone who knew someone, and the message went back that please could this flag be removed as it was ‘Claudia’s’ post and I didn’t think she would want it. Could it go somewhere else, I wasn’t fighting the flag, but I didn’t want it on that post. Ten days later, it was taken down, with a very respectful message put on social media about why it was being moved. The person who did this is a fan of putting up flags and his favourite flag is St George’s. I might not agree with him, but more importantly, I do, like him, I think, want to live in a country where, indirectly when necessary, we can have those awkward conversations and both walk away knowing that we didn’t lose and rather, that we gained something.
So here’s to everybody’s flags, kindness, honest discussion and respect. RIP Claudia Jennifer Landa, 1997 – 2014
The views expressed in this article are those of the Post author.
