Oh, to be in England

It is odd that of all the many citizenships one can claim, one cannot be “English “, unless you were born in one of the ‘Shires’.
I am British, but it is the imagery, of ‘England’, that Rupert Brooke aspires to in that amazing poem that I feel, too.
I remember walking down English Country lanes, or driving them in later years. Admiring the vista and the people.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a proud Canadian also.
But as an “English school boy” we were taught Brooke’s poem in a period when poetry was completely lost on me, he suddenly resonated with a wimpy 14 year old.
I have loved his poetry all my life and his collected works are within reach, even now.
Not just Rupert Brooke, but many other great men and women had lives cut short.
I thank them.

it was a different time

Recently in the news we had television personalities commenting about the use of "Black Face" make up as an accessory for Halloween costumes. It cost Megan Kelley her hosting job. I have no love for her as a commentator but am appalled at the lack of analysis around how common that form of entertainment was right up to the 1970's without others receiving a similar raking over the coals.

I completely understand how a Black American can feel mocked by such an outfit, but Halloween is full of absurd outfits for adults. Why is the "Sexy Nurse's Outfit" not raising similar outcry for people doing a very necessary and demanding job.
Of course, the simple answer is that most of those costumes are meant as humour not mockery. I do agree that Black Face is inappropriate for a child's Halloween dress up, though. How we dress up our children should be held to a different standard.
Living in Britain throughout the 1950's and '60's my family often watched one of the most popular television variety shows of the time: George Mitchell's Black and White Minstrel Show. It lead to a long running stage show that lasted until the mid-1970's. Also there were albums of the shows that dominated the pop music charts for a couple of years before The Beatles and similar youthful acts stormed into our lives. I cannot imagine how such a show would be handled nowadays.
(p.s. really was not a very good show. Its success says more about the lack of alternative viewing than the merits of the show itself. However, the lengthy success of stage show does puzzle me. Especially in London with its enormous choice of great stage offerings.)
In my own life I have been called many derogatory names but have also been treated with utmost respect and affection from the same community that the people mocking me came from.
One of the truly humorous names I have been called is "Paki". As an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta with a great love of Britain, and my British friends it seems an absurd moniker to foist onto me and shows how ridiculous name calling is when it is based on a single item of a complex human beings existence.