LETTER: 'Racism is bred into our society'

Who do we believe?

For those of us who worked inside Westminster through the 1980s and 1990s, we parliamentary secretaries were daily exposed to the dangers from the IRA.

There was no question of our not travelling from home to the House of Commons, having our vehicles checked by security at old Palace Yard, and being minded by Home Office warnings about letter bombs blowing our hands off as we opened the daily mail from constituents.

But today the present generation, who have not lived through past dangerous times, want to live in a risk free society.

But today's fears are different. We have racism, bred into our population through the centuries whereby we white Europeans enslaved peoples of a different colour, tribe or religion, building our empires on the backs of the underprivileged, to create the idolatory of the wealth we enjoy today.

White supremacy is rife in the US, aided and abetted by a Bible-waving president who looks for his supporters among the evangelical white Christians, whose gospel is difficult to reconcile with the message of Jesus Christ, who asked us to love our neighbours, whoever they were, and from wherever they came, with no distinction between colour, creed or culture.

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Currently before parliament is the Immigration Bill, introduced as a result of the Brexiteer voting electorate.

But the pandemic has given the public cause to rethink its approach to all those who have sacrificed their lives from BAME backgrounds.

Now you are needed for all those low-paid jobs in the service sector, like serving those in our care homes - hands-on help we prefer not to do ourselves.

We should be asking our politicians to rethink the Immigration Bill to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

What an Amazing Grace that would be to heal the hurts of the centuries, and even find a vaccine for this latest virus.

ISABEL WARD
Wellington