My father is (and I'm sure he'd get cross however I describe him) a humanistic, socially aware, small 'c' conservative, clever but tends to stand back from political and moral judgements.
He declared a couple of surprising things over Christmas, though. First of all, he has offered, without prompting, to march against war on Iraq should another one be organised (somehow he managed to miss the 400,000 people who went on the last one through his home city).
However, it turned out that this wouldn't be his first demonstration! No - in the late 1940s, he attended a rally in Venice protesting against the post-war partitioning of Italy - Trieste was in danger of being granted to Croatia, and it was a hugely emotive issue for a corner of the country which had changed hands several times since its formation a century earlier.
The demonstration was directed against the British, who were overseeing the divide. My father marched against British interference, chanting anti-British slogans. My father burnt a British flag in St Mark's Square.
How cool is that?
Posted by biondino at December 28, 2002 06:06 PM