Monday, July 25, 2011

There but for the grace of God...

I should like to reiterate that the conviction of Faheem Khalid Lodhi to 20 years in prison was a grotesque miscarriage of justice. It chills me whenever I think of it that in our country someone can be sentenced to such a term for planning an attack on infrastructure with 'the exact target, timing and method yet to be determined'.

It is seven years since I nailed my colours to the mast. As far as I can remember the letter quoted in that post, written about the time Christina Green was conceived, was the first time I had recorded any such thoughts in any medium. I hadn't written anything down, and I hadn't said anything to anyone, because I was - very vaguely, probably even less seriously than Faheem Khalid Lodhi - keeping my options open to plan something, someday, with the 'exact target, timing, and method yet to be determined'. And I didn't want to leave any tracks at all. Writing that letter was closing the door on that option. It was cowardice, not bravery. A step away from fanatical conviction, not towards it.

I used the line 'Human being is a process, not the name of a thing' as the ‘grab’ line in a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald about stem cell research, sometime in 2001-2003. The letter was published, but without this line that I had put in to get their attention. They must have just decided it was ungrammatical and silly. 

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