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Grim Truth: 91/31/10
Oct. 31st, 2008 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_siriusGreetings, British Wizarding World.
Today is a day of national significance for us all. Of course, it is your Lord Protector's birthday, which I am sure is cause for celebration for at least a dozen of you. But it is also All Hallow's Eve, which has been a holiday throughout the western world for centuries. The druidic sect of wizards, some of your ancestors, marked All Hallow's as the end of the year, the night on which old spirits return to walk the earth.
Ten years ago, two spirits were added to that complement long before they should have been. A brave, skilled wizard and a defiant, strong witch were murdered for no crime other than trying to protect innocent lives. They dared to stand up to one of the most infamous practitioners of the Dark Arts that our people have ever known, and for that, they paid the ultimate price.
In a perfect world, Lily and James Potter would be alive today, watching their son as he continues what is sure to be an illustrious career as student and wizard. In a less perfect, but better world than ours, I would at least have been able to be there for him. Instead he is among snakes and toadies. He has been raised to believe lies, and doubt the truth.
Traditionally, All Hallow's or Samhain is a time for renewal, a time to ask for health, peace and prosperity in the coming year. Some of you may think you already enjoy peace. But it is a false peace. It is a peace built on the backs of slaves, a peace that flouts the principles of equality and opportunity for all that many of our forebears fought to achieve for themselves.
So for my Hallowe'en wish, I wish only for you to know this: It is never a waste of time to fight against evil, never a futile effort to refuse to collude with those who would set themselves higher by bringing others low.
Years ago, not so very long, in fact, our people were oppressed and murdered, feared and misunderstood. It is easy to believe that Muggles deserve the same ill treatment or that they must be oppressed in return in order to protect the wizard population.
But this is a lie. One can debate the wisdom of hiding from Muggles, but the answer is not to show ourselves only to suppress them. It is not to separate families or to beat their children into submission and raise them in an atmosphere of terror and derision. It is not to decry a small voice that dares in innocence to ask the simplest, yet hardest, questions: Questions with answers that stab at the heart of hatred. It is not to accuse Muggles of practising genetic alteration on their children in order to create magical issue, when Muggleborn witches and wizards have been a fact of natural procreation for as long as history has been recorded.
One such Muggleborn was a witch of uncommon talent and immense kindness. She married a wizard born to an old, respected and pureblood line. Together, they served the cause of righteousness. I commend and honour their commitment to that goal. Although they fell to the same dark wizards who now control our 'blessed isle,' nevertheless they live in our memories. They are embodied in our continued fight for justice and truth.
Ladies and Gentlemen, when you raise your glasses tonight in toast to the so-called Protector of Britain, I bid you, in your hearts, salute the sacrifice of James and Lily Potter. Remember them as I remember them: defiant, strong, generous and loving. Remember that they gave everything in their attempt to save, not just their son, but all of us. Remember James and Lily.
Today is a day of national significance for us all. Of course, it is your Lord Protector's birthday, which I am sure is cause for celebration for at least a dozen of you. But it is also All Hallow's Eve, which has been a holiday throughout the western world for centuries. The druidic sect of wizards, some of your ancestors, marked All Hallow's as the end of the year, the night on which old spirits return to walk the earth.
Ten years ago, two spirits were added to that complement long before they should have been. A brave, skilled wizard and a defiant, strong witch were murdered for no crime other than trying to protect innocent lives. They dared to stand up to one of the most infamous practitioners of the Dark Arts that our people have ever known, and for that, they paid the ultimate price.
In a perfect world, Lily and James Potter would be alive today, watching their son as he continues what is sure to be an illustrious career as student and wizard. In a less perfect, but better world than ours, I would at least have been able to be there for him. Instead he is among snakes and toadies. He has been raised to believe lies, and doubt the truth.
Traditionally, All Hallow's or Samhain is a time for renewal, a time to ask for health, peace and prosperity in the coming year. Some of you may think you already enjoy peace. But it is a false peace. It is a peace built on the backs of slaves, a peace that flouts the principles of equality and opportunity for all that many of our forebears fought to achieve for themselves.
So for my Hallowe'en wish, I wish only for you to know this: It is never a waste of time to fight against evil, never a futile effort to refuse to collude with those who would set themselves higher by bringing others low.
Years ago, not so very long, in fact, our people were oppressed and murdered, feared and misunderstood. It is easy to believe that Muggles deserve the same ill treatment or that they must be oppressed in return in order to protect the wizard population.
But this is a lie. One can debate the wisdom of hiding from Muggles, but the answer is not to show ourselves only to suppress them. It is not to separate families or to beat their children into submission and raise them in an atmosphere of terror and derision. It is not to decry a small voice that dares in innocence to ask the simplest, yet hardest, questions: Questions with answers that stab at the heart of hatred. It is not to accuse Muggles of practising genetic alteration on their children in order to create magical issue, when Muggleborn witches and wizards have been a fact of natural procreation for as long as history has been recorded.
One such Muggleborn was a witch of uncommon talent and immense kindness. She married a wizard born to an old, respected and pureblood line. Together, they served the cause of righteousness. I commend and honour their commitment to that goal. Although they fell to the same dark wizards who now control our 'blessed isle,' nevertheless they live in our memories. They are embodied in our continued fight for justice and truth.
Ladies and Gentlemen, when you raise your glasses tonight in toast to the so-called Protector of Britain, I bid you, in your hearts, salute the sacrifice of James and Lily Potter. Remember them as I remember them: defiant, strong, generous and loving. Remember that they gave everything in their attempt to save, not just their son, but all of us. Remember James and Lily.
