ΕλληνικάPersonal thoughts
By Eleuteriou Olga & Fani K.
The following thoughts are sincere and spontaneous, appropriate for each active and integral part of the Modern Greek society. However, it is about deeper personal speculations of a researcher and a philologist who both shared from a young age common moments, values and goals.
The law of citizenship was held to be unconstitutional and since then much has been published and said a thousand times. But who is Greek and who is not? Is it a measurable species and, if so, what are the criteria? Our need to express ourselves comes from the belief that human relationships, highlighting friendship and love, do not have a color and do not know God. They defy borders and become stronger with diversity. Diversity is what fills life with colors, it “dances” in all the music of the world, it “intoxicates” with all the different scents and becomes an altar of faith with the man as God.
The society in which we grew up now scares us. Racism does not make distinctions and that is an oxymoron. It doesn’t stop on the migrant, the gay, the Muslim. It beats me and you and him. He who by constantly experiencing racism – and we have accepted racism many times because we are against it – learns, unfortunately for him and for all of us, to perpetuate it. Racism does not always throw you into the margin, it may only show you the way. Whether you follow it or not is your own choice.
In occasionally discussions with different people we arbitrarily decided (because we remind you that it is about personal experiences) to show the amplitude of the classic racist’s thinking. During the discussions, as we were mentioning our association with “black people” (sic), in the best case, the answer was that we use them as sexual partners. Expressing the views that becoming Greek is the same as being born Greek, people effortlessly marked us as anarchy-communists and anti-Greeks. Another time we were discussing with the 3rd grade of High School about human rights and equality, and there came a response you never expect to hear “Miss, I think you get these views directly from Syrisa!”. These answers and unfortunately many more, makes us wonder our grandma’s saying “Do you dip your tongue into your head before you speak?”.
Can you remind me who exactly asked you to hang those labels on me? Which paragraph of the Constitution makes the interaction with immigrant origin people a blameworthy act? And when did the panhuman rights became the line of a specific political party?
But we are not here to make history lessons, neither to convince them that our views is the correct one. We are happy to belong in groups that accept us for who we are and that our disagreements trigger a productive process of understanding diversity.
We declare that first of all and above all is the Human. The principles and values that preserve the integrity and the fundamental human rights are not negotiable. The continuous efforts made by a shifty system, by historically ignorant and fanatically egocentric people, do not leave us any room for discussion – only a loud “I am sorry!”. I am sorry that the ancient Greek spirit of Humanism have taught you nothing. I am sorry that with the flag of Democracy you persecute every different view. I am sorry that you can’t stand to have your own mind and to act for the common good. I don’t want to ruin all the fun you are having, but our origins are a complete accidental event. This does not apply, though, for our actions.
Please remember this…
