Skateboarding

I’ve done a 180 on the skateboarders who gather daily in the area before the Cenotaph on Bristol City Centre. Built in 1932, ours was one of the last monuments built after the First World War. It’s beautiful and often adorned by wreaths. It is Bristol’s memorial to those who died in that war and all others since. And people skateboard in front of it.

I blogged before that I was uncomfortable with it. The constant clatter of skateboarders bouncing off the ground is inescapable. “It’s disrespectful,” I said. Our heroes deserve better than, that. Did they really die so that young people could demonstrate their skills on a piece of wood with wheels on? Well, yes, actually.

Having thought about this – I really can think sometimes – I have concluded that people who fought so we could be free would have actually welcomed these young interlopers. Freedom is at the heart of this. The young people who gather in large numbers are part of this. I noted yesterday, as I walked across the centre, that none of the lads actually went near the monument. They were also peaceful, in this sense that they were not getting in the way of anyone else’s life.

I wandered over to look at the wreaths and no one whizzed in front of me at a rapid rate of knots. In fact, there was far more noise from the endless gridlock that our city centre has become. No one seems to have suggested banning all traffic from the city centre.

What would these young lads, and some slightly older lads, it must be said, be doing but for the skateboarding? We can but speculate but it is entirely possible they might not all be doing good things. Here, they were burning energy, having fun together in their little community and harming no-one.

We owe so much to those who fought for us in armed conflict. But for their heroism, heaven knows where we might be today, assuming all of us would have gone on to be born at all. Perhaps the best thing we can do to honour their memory is to use that freedom as best we can. If that means skateboarding, then so be it.