Dignity

Ordinary people are important to me
Privileged self-entitled people are of no interest to me until they discover humility.

I felt compelled to write about contrasting bits of news I read on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday the band Deacon Blue received an award from a radio show for Scotland’s Greatest Song. The song is from 1987 and is called Dignity. The lyrics, below, are about a man who works for the Council cleaning streets and he saves money over the years to buy a boat.

In the small town where I grew up, I became friendly with a man who swept litter from the streets when I was a teenager. He was a clever man who impressed me with his wisdom. When I became older, I often chatted to him in the pub. He always had something interesting to say.

Nobody thought any less of this man because of his occupation. Every town, no matter the size, needs somebody for every job in order to keep all the cogwheels of society running. A street cleaner’s job is just as important as other jobs, because for a modern society to function properly every job has to be fulfilled.

Today I read about Gavin Williamson, a Tory MP for the UK government, who said the UK got the Pfizer vaccine first because it’s a much better country. The Education Secretary told LBC that the UK has “the very best people”, adding “they are better than those in France, Belgium or the United States.”

Explaining why he believes the UK was the first to approve the Covid-19 vaccine, Williamson said: “Well I just reckon we’ve got the very best people in this country and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators.”

“Much better than the French have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have.”

“That doesn’t surprise me at all because we’re a much better country than every single one of them aren’t we.”

As far as I am concerned, people who have humility are superior to people who consider themselves and their like to be superior.

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Deacon Blue – Dignity

There’s a man I meet, walks up our street
He’s a worker for the council
Has been twenty years
And he takes no lip off nobody
And litter off the gutter
Puts it in a bag
And never thinks to mutter
And he packs his lunch in a Sunblest bag
The children call him Bogie
He never lets on
But I know ’cause he once told me
He let me know a secret about the money in his kitty
He’s gonna buy a dinghy
Gonna call her Dignity

And I’ll sail her up the west coast
Through villages and towns
I’ll be on my holidays
They’ll be doing their rounds
They’ll ask me how I got her I’ll say, “I saved my money”
They’ll say, “Isn’t she pretty? That ship called Dignity”

And I’m telling this story
In a faraway sea
Sipping down raki
And reading Maynard Keynes
And I’m thinking about home and all that that means
And a place in the winter for dignity

And I’ll sail her up the west coast
Through villages and towns
I’ll be on my holidays
They’ll be doing the rounds
They’ll ask me how I got her I’ll say, “I saved my money”
They’ll say, “Isn’t she pretty? That ship called Dignity”

Stand it up, stand it up, stand it up, stand it up, stand it up, stand it up
Yeah, stand it up again, stand it up again, stand it up again, stand it up again
Stand it up, stand it up, stand it up, stand it up, stand it up, stand it up
Yeah, stand it up again, stand it up again, stand it up again, stand it up again

And I’m thinking about home
And I’m thinking about faith
And I’m thinking about work
And I’m thinking how good it would be
To be here some day

On a ship called Dignity
A ship called Dignity
That ship