RESPECT, REWARD & RESPONSIBILITY.

Respect, Reward and Responsibility are important words.

I remember what they used to mean to me.

And I am currently processing what they mean to me now.

Respect.

I’m becoming ever-less respectful of the silly pouting people.

Staring at themselves in the mirror or their iPhone.

And I am becoming ever-more respectful of the blotchy-faced doctors and nurses.

Staring into the eyes and hearts of their patients.

And their next 12 hour shift.

This is how I feel about the word ‘respect’ right now.

Reward.

I am becoming ever-less ‘OK’ with the rewards accrued by the super-affluent.

Many of whom seem to have disappeared right now.

Perhaps worried because when they stare at their £100 million stockpile.

They will have noticed that it has (temporarily) shrunk to a mere £50 million.

And I am becoming ever-more ‘OK’ with the wage requests of those on the front line of the National Health Service.

As they stare at the fight they have on their hands.

To get a 1% to 3% annual pay rise.

When a nurse starts on £24,000.

In a country where the average take-home pay is £30,500.

This is how I feel about the word ‘reward’ right now.

Responsibility. 

And so to the word ‘Responsibility’.

There is someone I get quite angry with about all of the above.

In the context of the word ‘Responsibility’.

Because this person chooses to only look at these ‘Respect and Reward’ issues when the fans and the shit meet.

When the issues affect them.

And theirs.

I get quite angry with this person because they think they are not in any way responsible for the imbalances referenced above.

When I think that.

Somehow.

They must be.

This Person.

I am angry that this person doesn’t do anything to rally against the fuckers with the billions that don’t pay taxes that could support the NHS in the UK.

So that the NHS can support us all.

And I am angry that this person does nothing to support the worries and the causes relating to the front-line NHS.

Preferring to look the other way.

Until the kindness and the expertise of the NHS are needed.

At that point when they can no longer look the other way.

Because the virus is tapping them on the shoulder.

And looking them in the face.

This is how I feel about the word ‘responsibility’ right now.

This is how I am feeling about myself.