FanPost

Forgive and Forget

I wasn't born when Hillsborough occurred. I wouldn't be born, till 6 years later, halfway across the world. My father, who has no association with football, doesn't watch it outside the world cup remembers it though. He's a doctor, and he remembers the reports on tv.

I've watched them with my own eyes, but the videos don't do the incident justice. The surging pre-match atmosphere of a great cup tie. Alcohol maybe, not that it matters. Just another day out with your mates, just another football game. Then the pressure, the uncomfortable closeness of the person behind you which just doesn't let up. The wave of the crowd which presses into you, and doesn't subside. Excitement and expectation falling slowly, into panic and fear.

It was horrifying he told me. And I don't doubt it.

But no one would be talking about Hillsborough now if it all ended there. And we all know it didn't. There is much emotion surrounding a certain newspaper because of the things that they did in the wake of the disaster. To some, you aren't a fan if you buy it. To others, it's not even about being a fan, it's about being a decent human being. It's morally wrong, in their eyes to support an institution that had propogated a lie for a good two decades.

Yes they apologised, and to some that should be enough. But for years of mistrust, a fight for justice that still has not delivered, is that apology, over two decades late even close to making up for it?

Imagine watching the tv. Hearing the news. Two of your loved ones were there. You call and they don't answer. An hour of waiting turns to two, and you get a call late at night. It's one of them, but he doesn't know where the other is.

I am aware that that newspaper is not the only party culpable for the reports and injustice. There are many others responsible, some of which are still free and knighted, living on public pensions. There is a time to forgive and forget, but for those of us who did not lose someone, who did not have to put up with 23 years of slander, hurt and lies, to demand such a thing of those who are still angry, still hurting , still looking for resolution is wrong.

The boycott of the rag goes on.

The club hired someone who worked for that organisation. A someone whose father, a "fan for many years", surely knew about Hillsborough. Surely knew what happened that day, and surely would have said something to her about it. A someone who must have been aware of what happened that day, but chose to go ahead anyway.

That says something about the person, but something else of the club. Alone here in my corner of the internet, thousands of miles away from Liverpool, maybe my concern is of no consequence, but it's certainly saying something that the club can choose to hire someone who has done this. My prose does no justice.

People are hurting, and I don't know what to do. Don't know what to make of it.

JFT96.

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