A friend told me it was wrong of me to call the Speaker and his lawyer piles of shit, not when I complain about hate speech. I tell other people that words are like stones, they should use them to build bridges not to throw them at someone else. And yet I am weak and my anger gets the better of me. I don’t regret my anger at Anġlu Farrugia but I did feel I would have chosen different words if I had spoken to my friend before publishing.
And then I heard this clip from a debate on Andrew Azzopardi’s radio show earlier today. This is Labour’s Anthony De Giovanni speaking when asked to react to Lawrence Gonzi’s remarks about Anġlu Farrugia’s response to Matthew Caruana Galizia. He gave partisan reasons why he thought Lawrence Gonzi was not qualified to comment which you may or may not agree with but are within the realm of political controversy if not rationality.
Then, Anthony Degiovanni, unprompted volunteered his “reason” why Matthew Caruana Galizia should not have written to the Speaker to complain about what Anġlu Farrugia did with Rosianne Cutajar.
Watch.
Forgive me, and I know I’m a lesser person for admitting this, but faced by this hatred I feel unable to do anything short of returning it. I can’t bear to know I walk on the same ground this man calls his country. And yet, should something terrible happen to someone he loves, I pray I would never feel inclined to want to make him feel responsible for it.