Be The Tide To Raise ALL Boats And Fight For Democracy That Works For All Of US.

Too many of us believe we can’t change the world by our actions. Too many of us believe that our voices will never be heard because we aren’t “influencers” in our work or community. But that’s not true. We all have the ability to change the world around us, for the better, in small or large ways.

Just look at the life story of my dad, Harry Leslie Smith. He was the epitome of the ordinary man.

He didn’t crave the limelight - only the sunlight that would allow him to work late into the evenings on his garden. He was a good citizen who paid his taxes, voted in all elections, and helped to provide and nurture, along with my mother, our family. All through his life he followed politics but wasn’t consumed by every issue of the day because life was for living, not campaigning 24/7.

Yet, at his death at the age of 95 in November 2018, he was known as the world’s oldest rebel because of his defence of the NHS, the Welfare State and the vulnerable - not just in Britain but around the world.

The last ten years of my dad’s life were an excellent example of how an ordinary citizen without influence, wealth or connections can rise above the tide of established voices to speak his mind.

But it wasn’t an easy journey for my dad to go from anonymous old man in the crowd to evolving into a voice for tolerance and a Britain for the many, not the few. On my dad’s part, it took gumption, patience and a thick skin to endure the first few years of his journey into Harry’s Last Stand because at first, few in the media or in politics wanted to hear from a kindly old gent with no connections to the world of punditry.

And, yet none of this would have happened if my brother Peter had not died tragically, in 2009 at the age of 50.

My brother’s death left my dad at 86 crippled by grief and loneliness and wanting to die because he had outlived one of his children. I knew then he wouldn’t live long unless he found purpose and enjoyment out of being alive. It’s why I encouraged him and helped him to start writing about his harsh life growing up in the slums of Barnsley, Bradford and Halifax during during the tsunami of economic misery that struck Yorkshire in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It was a painful task for him to go back to those years of hunger, homelessness, and where politicians in Westminster ignored the hungry cries of his  generation. But by writing about his youth, my dad started to see parallels with Britain’s descent into austerity after the 2008 banking crash and the defeat of the Brown Labour government.

Writing gave my dad the courage to join social media platforms like Twitter where younger political activists found inspiration in the memories he evoked about his generation's ability to change Britain for the better at the end of World War II.

Bit by bit, tweet by tweet, essay by essay and book by book, my dad was able to use his ordinary, working class experiences as boy and man in Yorkshire over 75 years ago to help frame an argument that we must do better as a society in the 21st century, or else the history of the 1930s would repeat itself on today’s generation. Sadly, he like so many others on the left in our 21st century failed to change our tumbled through the looking glass into fascism.

It’s dark out there. But my dad’s generation knew the darkness well and I think they would say, “We must be a tide to raise all boats and resist the right with all our might to our dying breath. Existence has no meaning without empathy and incrementalism only helps maintain the status quo of entitlements to the few and misery for the many. Take a page out of my dad’s book and use what ever time you can spare to try to make a difference that helps make a better Britain for all.

As always, thank you for reading my sub stack posts because I really need your help this month. In fact with only 2 days left my rent for July is yet to be shored up. Your subscriptions to Harry’s Last Stand keep the legacy of Harry Leslie Smith alive and me housed. So if you can join with a paid subscription which is just 3.50 a month or a yearly subscription or a gift subscription. I promise the content is good, relevant and thoughtful. Take Care, John