Plenary, 12 Dec 2001
Meeting date: Wednesday, December 12, 2001
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
To lead our time for reflection, I welcome Neil Morrison, who is a fifth-year pupil at Govan High School, in Glasgow.
Neil Morrison (Govan High School, Glasgow):
Good afternoon, members of the Scottish Parliament. I am a fifth year pupil at Govan High School in Glasgow. When I was asked to lead time for reflection, I paused to reflect on what the Scottish Parliament is and what it means to me and the people of my community. For me, the Parliament is about leadership.
We in Govan are a close-knit, patriotic community. We are proud of our past and clear about the future. Our school ethos reflects that, and we have strong leadership to help us reach our goals. It seems to me that those are also the aims that you have for the people of this country.
As a teenager in Scotland today, I have many things to be thankful for, of which the Scottish Parliament is one. We need look back no further than 11 September and the dreadful attacks on the World Trade Center to recognise that we in Scotland are doing something right. Closer to home, there has been violent conflict in Ireland; and there is continuing violence in the West Bank.
People of my age in Scotland have never witnessed such violence close at hand and we never want to. We recognise that conflict resolution is always better done on the floor of an institution such as this—whatever minor difficulties it might occasionally encounter—than with a bullet or a bomb.
Last summer a Kurdish asylum seeker, Firsat Dag, was killed as he made his way home to a high-rise block on Glasgow's Sighthill estate. That is not the Glasgow that I recognise or want.
People from all faiths and persuasions have spoken at time for reflection and, through that, the Scottish Parliament is setting an example of co-existence and religious tolerance of which we can be proud. Govan High School is copying that example. We are host school to the bilingual support unit, which prepares young people from different backgrounds, whose first language is not English, to be integrated into our schools.
Today, we have shared this time together. Last summer, Govan High School held a multi-cultural event and some members of the Parliament celebrated with us far into the night.
I understand that it is usual to end this address with a biblical quotation, but I will end with a quotation from a politician. John F. Kennedy delivered the following words to the Canadian Parliament in 1961, but they apply equally to Scotland's relationship with England and the rest of the world:
"Geography has made us neighbours, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners and necessity has made us allies. Those whom God has so joined together, let no man put asunder".
Thank you.