Originally published in Spanish. Laura Freixas. La Vanguardia.
I am fed up. I am fed with a procés [the process towards independence -TN] that has been spinning like a ferris wheel for five years, going nowhere but consuming energies, monopolizing debates, wasting public resources paid by all. I am fed with a Govern [Regional government -TN] that neither rules nor lets others rule. I am fed up with rulers that brag about disobeying and lying while we, everyday citizens, have to follow laws to the letter. I am fed up with being told that they have prepared a most important law… that they wonʼt show us and that they intend to pass by surprise and without any parliamentary debate. Due to “slyness”, they say. I am fed up with calling “slyness” what is simply conspiring against half of your own population. I am fed up that these private-school-educated gentlemen with leisure homes in Cerdanya compare themselves to Rosa Parks. More respect for Rosa Parks, damnit! I am fed up with the attempts to convince us that democracy means a referendum. Since when is voting yes or no more democratic than choosing between several programs? This last option, at least, allows for reaching agreements, and eventual change after four years. The losers in a referendum lose everything (and depending on who wins, they lose it forever): their humiliation and impotence will carry a heavy cost. Is it a good government that which intends to unite and reconcile or that which tries to divide and incite clashes?
I am fed up with being told that democracy is “setting the ballot boxes”, while they stomp on rules arisen from the previous ballot boxes. I am fed up with the whataboutism of the pro-independence people. Are you against the corrupt subservience of state-owned media to the current government, against cheating? Or only when others do it? I am fed up with a Govern that thinks we are blind and cannot see that all that posturing, those boastful gestures and pictures for history are just attempts to distract us from the Pujol case, the Palau case, the 3% case [corruption cases involving members of the ruling party in the regional government -TN]. I am fed up that they believe that charnegos [demeaning slang term for Catalonian descendants of immigrants from elsewhere in Spain -TN] are idiots, and that Encarni is going to believe that the ANC [A pro-independence volunteer organization -TN] volunteer knocking on her door will pay her pension out of his own pocket. I am fed up with those who warn us that “transition” (towards a situation that a majority of us do not back with our votes) “wonʼt be peaceful”, as if they had nothing to do with that violence they foresee. I am fed up with seeing those who rule us so enthused with their epic story: them, heroic David, against evil Spanish Goliath. And what about us, half of the Catalonian population? What role do they give us in this tragic-comedy? Iʼm afraid itʼs the worst role in the !uc! [a traditional Catalonian form of graphic storytelling]: as hostages.
