Quit griping about the Stonehenge travellers
Letter to Southampton Echo newspaper
My VE Day anniversary mood was ruined on Monday by the sanctimonious councillor from Wiltshire who popped up on television news to whine about some New Age Travellers who were peacefully celebrating at Stonehenge.
Far from arousing my indignation against them with his cries of "illegal trespassers" he instead angered me with that petty intolerance that is so widespread, incapable of seeing Stonehenge as anything more than a profit-making and purely vacuous heritage experience.
I am not a New Age Traveller but I respect and admire the fact that there are many of them who see the Stones in a spiritual light and endow them with an essence that is entirely missing in the ethos of the tourist industry.
In 2,000 years' time, if Christianity is virtually forgotten but the great cathedrals are still standing, will hordes of security men encircle them at the Christian festivals to keep out a few misfits who come on spiritual business?
What are the Stones for? What is the 50th anniversary of VE Day for? were two questions I pondered.
BRIAN RAYWID, Thornhill, Southampton
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