Billy Bragg
Bridges Not Walls

«His music is a shield erected against human pettiness».

Thus, Saffiyah rushes into the street with an impulse swirling in her mind to make her body a shield against the petty.

On the streets of Birmingham, that afternoon, the England Defense League is marching, those who boldly and fearlessly advance to defend the homeland without the homeland having invited them.

Imagine the scene, when Ian sees Saira, he sees her from a kilometer away, that veil covering her head, it seems like he takes a run to lunge against her, while he rails against her and all those like her, who would be roses and flowers if England were still for the English.

Ian is at the head of that small group because England must be defended, against Saira and those like her.

A few days earlier, someone like Saira got behind the wheel of an SUV and plowed into the people crossing the Westminster Bridge in London, mowing down five.

It is Ian's curses that first draw Saffiyah to the window of the studio apartment and then drive her down the stairs into the street, with that urge to erect a shield against human pettiness.

The harsh law of physics dictates that a heavy body crushes a light one.

Ian is a bulldog, small, stocky, and also heavy.

Saffiyah is a chihuahua, slender but light.

However, she does not hesitate to act as a shield for Saira, interposing against Ian's curses with a disarming smile, only that.

Until the police arrive and take Saffiyah away, with that smile always imprinted on her face, and the E.D.L. march resumes its progress undisturbed.

I don't know if Saffiyah has ever heard Billy Bragg sing, but I like to think that she knows him, just as I also like to think that she is a fan of the Specials.

In the sense that she knows which side to be on in life and, no matter how irrelevant, in her listening, her readings, and her visions.

Billy Bragg, on the other hand, knows Saffiyah for sure.

He dedicated to her «Saffiyah Smiles», one of the six songs that make up the EP «Bridges Not Walls».

Billy Bragg is one of those who know which side to be on, he chose that side forty years ago and never changed his stripes or hung up his guitar.

He cites Francisco Goya as well as Anaïs Mitchell.

He continues to wonder whether it's better to vote red for himself or green for his son.

Whether the politics of Theresa May or that of Donald Trump is more protective.

And anyway, in these changing times, Billy remains an unwavering certainty and his music a shield erected against human pettiness.