On Sunday night, two events marked the national media space: the classic Porto-Benfica that took Mourinho again to the dragon and made a lot of paint and the arrival of the four Portuguese activists who, at the end of August, were part of the humanitarian flotilla towards Gaza. Both events have occupied endless hours of television news, filled our notifications phones and have, as is now habit, a drain of reactions on social networks – because now, if we do not react on networks, it is not considered a reaction.
Comments on football nobody calls much, and it is already certain that the debate is not very high – unfortunately. But the comments that have multiplied since early Sunday morning about Portuguese activists is something that should make us reflect.
Let’s go, once again, by parts: Everyone has the right to do what you think is right for your struggles. They can manifest, can volunteer with homeless, animals or babies, may belong to union movements, can go into political parties and can embark on humanitarian flotillas. And everyone has, in the same sense, the right to disagree with these actions and not to do them. And it’s okay. We may even argue if Mariana Mortágua’s trip – because in fact, the criticisms were particularly to the BE MP – it was a political maneuver or not. And we can disagree with your trip, of course. Now, what we can’t do is incite hatred and violence, which was something that was seen as soon as the four activists were arrested, and when it was known that the Portuguese authorities were – and well – to deal with their return.
From people with political responsibilities to ordinary citizens, the wave of hatred that has been felt well reflects the level of extremism and intolerance we currently live. We have to dissociate our political disagreement of a humanitarian issue – authorities should not leave Portuguese citizens alone, never. Let alone deny their support, especially when they are in a country whose hostility is recognized-you have to worry. The inability we show in living with convictions or beliefs that are not ours has to worry. The story has shown us-we don’t even need to retreat so much in time! – that each time we move away from each other; That we increased the ditches and encouraged intolerance, things went very badly to societies. And it’s not just the rulers or only political leaders who do so and who have responsibilities in this. We are all, those who distill hateful and violent comments against people who acted differently from the one we would do. We are all that we are becoming a very ugly place to live.