Carmella is firmly of the opinion that the time has come for us to be more vocal should we find ourselves objecting to something a more Woke friend might have to say about an issue. Judith said it's all very well saying something like that but as far as she was concerned it would depend very much upon the issue under discussion and she for one wasn't going to voice an opinion about tearing down slave trader statues in Bristol. After a second or two she added `or any statue in Bristol for that matter.' Marilyn said nothing at all and simply sipped on her gin and tonic. I think I said something about not all statues in Bristol being likely to be associated with the slave trade but not all that loudly either and in any case they weren't really listening.
Carmella can always be relied upon to be what used to be called Feisty and is now probably called something else. As Judith pointed out in an email conversation later that evening, she successfully managed to get herself arrested during that peaceful march in 1979. Neither of us could remember what we had been marching about and later Marilyn said she couldn't recall marching at all. It was Judith's firmly held opinion that it simply didn't do these days to be too outspoken where some topics were concerned because people got upset and if they got really upset you might find yourself having to defend a point of view that should never have been expressed in the first place. `Better by far that some opinions are kept to yourself,' she said and added, `like it used to be years ago when we didn't talk about politics or religion'.
All of us could clearly remember being told way back in the time when it was perfectly acceptable to hold an opinion that differed perhaps from the majority that even so certain subjects were definitely taboo, not for general examination, to be kept to ourselves. By and large it saved a great deal of the angst that went alongside picking over and discussing such matters. I couldn't help forcefully reiterating that even so it was still acceptable back in those halcyon days to hold views that Society did not approve of - you didn't actually get persecuted for it did you?
It was Carmella who ventured that the age we now lived in was not dissimilar to that faced by the unfortunate accused Witches of the sixteenth century. Once suspected it was a bloody nightmare to extricate yourself from the allegation and if you were our age, lived alone, grew your own vegetables and owned a black cat you might as well give up all hope of anyone believing in your innocence.
We decided upon a second round of liquid sustenance and it was Carmella's turn to buy. Whilst she was in the throes of ordering we largely agreed that her ideas were not always entirely sensible. I think it was Judith who added that Wokeness itself was bound to pass - eventually. Witch trials did in the end!
