Hillsborough
ARTICLE BY SUPERSUB
Ricky Gervais does a gag about Oscar Wilde & his witty quotes. He rips into how contrived Wilde’s supposedly spontaneous wit can seem at times. Aside from being funny, it’s also pretty astute. He’s got a point. Quotes (of all denominations) can sometimes have that ‘rehearsed’ feel about them & are often not as impressive as those that seem to come from deep within.
Apparently, Edgar Allen Poe is quoted as saying, “I was never really insane, except upon occasions when my heart was touched”. There was a guy I knew years ago, who used to repeat this quote all the bluddy time & it did me head in. It was a favourite quote of his & he was very fond of inserting it into conversations as often, and as loudly, as possible. I just thought that he was a bit bonkers (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).I’d never really thought about it properly before, but I think he might’ve had a point.
Liverpool Football Club touches your heart. It touches the heart of every single one of us, in a multitude of different ways, but that ‘touch’ always felt, somehow. And because of that we can, time & time again, be led to the brink (and beyond) of what seems like insanity, We’ve all done mad stuff ourselves, or heard tales about the lengths that other supporters have gone to, just to watch a team that’s touched our hearts play a football match.
Think of the images of the Liverpool & Everton supporters at Wembley in the 1980’s, rivalries briefly forgotten in a common cause, hanging from ‘ropes’ made out of footy scarves tied together, swinging umpteen feet above the ground, as they tried to get inside the stadium to watch their team play. One person looking at that, might describe it as an act of insanity, another might describe it as an act of heartfelt love & devotion towards a football club. Maybe, to a certain extent, they’re both right. It looks like he did have a point with that quote after all. Well, well, well.
On this day, 32 years ago, tens of thousands of people set off, with hope in their hearts, to watch Liverpool Football Club who, in some way had touched all those hearts, play yet another game of football, yet another cup semi-final, yet another big game, with yet another potential trophy at stake. 96 of them never arrived home safely. Today especially, our heartfelt thoughts go out to all the families and friends of those that they (and we) lost, and to anyone whose heart was touched in any way by this tragedy.
At the end of the storm, there’s a golden sky……… RIP YNWA JFT96.
Footnote:
It was never intended here, to go into any great detail about what happened at Hillsborough, everybody knows what happened. There was also an attempt to avoid straying into political territory. I would’ve liked to include a big nod to all those who’ve fought against the BJS et al for the last 3 decades or so. ‘Unity is Strength’ indeed & total respect where it’s due. It was also tempting to point a few fingers (and there’s LOADS of potential targets to still be pointed at), but that would’ve been yet another tangent.
The comment section will hopefully provide an opportunity for those who want to express their opinions about this. I know of people who hide themselves away on the 15th of April every year & don’t wanna talk about it at all & others who do like to chat about what this day means to them & all things connected with that. Everyone has their own way of dealing with today, by doing whatever works best for them, It’s a horrible day today. The worst day of the year for many. I’ll stop there.
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