Salman Abedi was a born and bred Mancunian. The city conceals many jihadis and extremists. That's why Tony Walsh's poem, while stirring the crowd and gaining acclaim, was not actually appropriate. At its heart may even have lain a hidden racism, that when talking about true Mancunians, you are not including the likes of Abedi or his cohorts.
A city is a microcosm of the world, teeming with difference and variety. Suggesting that its inhabitants gain a solidarity by being identified together under a single heading, such as its place name, is to ignore the (unintended) racism at the heart of this approach.
Unity is not born out of similarity, but the ability to co-exist with mutual respect.
The people of a city have multiple loyalties and gather under numerous names, even regard themselves as belonging to different countries. Their ability to live peacefully, must be based not on an appeal to a shared belonging to place, but on a shared humanity that can take, at best, a myriad of peaceful forms.
A poem pointing to and celebrating not 'the place', but our common humanity, would have contained a more robust and comprehensively applicable message.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4543352/SUE-REID-Manchester-city-jihadis-hide-away.html
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