Symbols and identity

A lot has changed since I have become a Lawful Permanent Resident in the US.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union

The United States of America voted to elect Donald Trump as its 45th president.

One of the largest arenas in Europe, on top of one of the busiest train stations in my Dad's home city of Manchester was bombed, resulting in the murders of a number of people.

Which brings me to symbols. 

The biographies and ID lines of my social media accounts are largely a reflection of limits but they all (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) show symbols that reflect on those events and things that I wish to self-identify as

I am proud of everything reflected in my bios. 

I'm gonna start with Twitter because it is still structured around word limits which reflect largely on its roots in the era of SMS text messages. My ID on Twitter and Instagram is mhdtim. It reflects my proud residence of this city of Moorhead and this state of Minnesota. As I commented the other day, this is actually something beyond the control of government or law enforcement of city or state. Immigration, even for someone travelling to live with his wife, is handled by the federal Departments of State and Homeland Security.

Next to my name on Twitter are currently a mic and a radio. This is largely wishful thinking as I have not had any spoons for Technical Difficulties on 88.1 FM KPPP-LP, the public voice of the beautiful, steely People's Press Project. Thanks to the owners, Cindy and Duke for their endless understanding on this matter. I hope to be back on air with a show about (and with) the ADAPT protestors.

My biography then says this:

#pacifistnotpassive - a slogan from my proud membership of the Peace Pledge Union, as a pacifist.

 - the European Flag, a symbol of my lifelong attachment to European identity. This has become necessary since the UK started moves to leave the EU (but not the much broader Council of Europe) as a reiteration of my self-identity, which will continue even when I eventually become a Anglo-American dual citizen.

West Lancs

 - I grew up in West Lancashire, both the get geographical description and the predominant council in the area. Locals refer to this area, with the 'Golf Coast' including the site of this year's Open Championship, Royal Birkdale (Irish Sea), Preston and Wigan as the corners. Funnily enough, my brother's youth footy team had a lively, hate-filled rivalry with a team from Birkdale. Lancs is the postal abbreviation, so has been used by locals for years.

Mcr - As I said, my Dad is from Manchester, or Mcr in short. 

My Facebook cover photo is a filtered photo of the Town Hall floor covered in an artistic depiction of worker bees, a depiction of the industrial heritage and pride of the city.

Filtered from Manchester bee - Manchester bee, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59822400

 The competing city, with a similar pride and competing history is Liverpool with its Liver Bird, a mythical creature which nonetheless adorns both one of the city's main building and one of its two footy clubs. 

The bee, on the other hand, does not feature on any of the city's footy crests, but does feature on trash bins. After the bombing, the symbol re-emerged as a symbol around which an often competitive city can rally around.

Both Manchester clubs feature a ship and City's redesigned crest shows the Red Rose of Lancashire, marking the relatively new idea of Greater Manchester and Merseyside as rallying points, when both Manchester and Liverpool were parts of Lancashire at inception.

Lancashire's county cricket ground is Old Trafford. The name might ring a bell, it is at the other end of Warwick Road in Trafford Borough from Manchester United's stadium. Trafford Council's HQ is between the two.

➡ @trentuni : From my life as a season ticket holder for Manchester United and rural resident of West Lancs, I chose to go to 'school/college' (actually a University and proudly so) at Nottingham Trent University, named after the city where it's based and the river that marks its border. Trent is also proud of its heritage as an incubator for journalistic talent. I hope I have done them proud. I thoroughly enjoyed my three years (the length of a Bachelor's Degree in England) in that city but there was no work there so I moved on.

➡Brixton : Technically, I moved to Northwood in the London Borough of Hillingdon first. A friend had a spare room for free. Northwood is sufficiently far from central London that the postal address was in the old county (yes that again) of Middlesex and when the Tube lines were murderously bombed, there was actually no other mode of transport that could take me that far.

My friend moved to Spain, I moved to Brixton. The two places could not have been any less similar. Northwood was suburban London, white and quiet. Honestly, dangerous at night to get to the Tube for my night shift. Brixton Road, which runs through the centre of the neighbourhood, had a strong Afro-Caribbean (mostly Trinidad and Jamaica with some Ghana thrown in) vibe and a reputation for marijuana - which remains completely illegal in the UK. A reggae record store called Reds proudly stood opposite the Tube station and blared out its music. The police were instructed to ignore pot dealers and concentrate on bigger crimes. The site of the deaths of Jean-Charles de Menezes and Damilola Taylor were areas I knew, and were close by. I'll always be a white guy from Lancashire, but I'm a proud adoptive Brixtonian. By the time I had left, the shop had gone and while the Tube station was now accessible via a lift, some of the area's multicultural vibe had been been gentrified out of it.

I made life long friends both at college and in Brixton but my landlords weren't amongst them so after developing our relationship online, I decided to move all my life 4000 miles away.

➡ Minnesota/Red River Valley

And this is now where I live. The Red River Valley is another area benefiting from fertile lands left behind by a receding lake, in this case the Agassiz. The current inhabitants also benefit from the mass murder of the lands previous inhabitants although as a pacifist I would assert that anyone telling you categorically "what would have happened if such-and-such war had been won/lost" are in fantasy land. All empires come to an end.

I am currently employed for @thisiscsd  as a relay operator, which briefly involves me handling calls from Deaf people. There isn't much else I can say, without breaking the strict confidentiality rules.

I am also a journalist, it is what I majored in and I currently use it on @lightchronic, the disability rights news feed for Technical Difficulties. 

I don't think the  ♿symbol needs any explanation but it's presence brings me on to the only thing I say on Instagram is basically and not directly elsewhere. I explicitly reference my catchphrase from Technical Difficulties, "Wear Your Scars With Pride". I mean it, I wrote a poem about it, and I am a proud disabled person. My decision to use that symbol is a decision to be part of the openly disabled community fighting for equal rights.

Facebook differs in that it features the bee picture above as the cover but also in that I consciously describe myself as a "romantic immigrant".

I don't just mean that I am a romantic (no arguments there) or an immigrant (my journey to this point proves that) but that my journey was compelled by love for my wife, and the realisation that it was easier this way than in reverse. Hell we may both end up in Iceland given our politics aren't exactly mainstream here. 

However, I am also acknowledging that I made a decision that only the privileged few can, of moving home with the majority of my possessions and in my own time in a first class cabin, not with a backpack and bullets or bombs in my wake. I know the migrant experience but I am not a refugee and want to acknowledge that distinction too.

Love and peace, wherever you are.

Tim