Thatch falls

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"Not just for our own sense of vengeance, but because those who are younger don't know what went on. And those who died in the south Atlantic, on a hospital trolley or at Potters Bar won't be able to speak for themselves"

Nor will my brother, who died ostensibly at his own hand but in reality was a victim of her closure of the mental hospitals and false claim that Care in the Community would be an adequate substitute. Nor will hundreds of others that were never admitted to - he told me a third of the people he knew in his situation had done it before he did.

So I have a badge of hatred for her as valid as anyone's. And yet, I wouldn't be part of the jubilation or grave-dancing - for two reasons. First, it won't change the mindset of those who want to say she was wonderful - in fact, it will strengthen their belief that she was right, and will therefore be counter-productive. Second, is an old fashioned almost biblical notion but one which nevertheless I've found personally true. Demonstrating hatred like that diminishes the Self. It really does. You have to try it to know it but by then it'll be too late.

Much better, for both reasons, to have on the day of her funeral a day of quiet remembrance for her victims.

nigelswift wrote:
First, it won't change the mindset of those who want to say she was wonderful - in fact, it will strengthen their belief that she was right, and will therefore be counter-productive.
Both of these presume that the intention is to change the minds of those who know who she was and love her for it. That isn't the intention.

It is to show that this person was not what those adorers will claim, that she is a universally feted figure whose detractors have been proven wrong and that history has vindicated her.

There are a great many people who don't know who she was and what she did. There can be no more immediate demonstration of that than people converging to celebrate her death.

A day of quiet remembrance hands the mic to her acolytes. It means her ideas are more accepted, and therefore more likely to hold sway in future.