I have written before about the fact that we are living through unprecedented times of mockery and malediction, amplified by the possibilities afforded by social media. Whenever someone wakes up in a foul temper, it is our collective sanity that must suffer the moods of the realm.

And yet there are moments that continue to astonish us, moments when we find ourselves confronted with what some might charitably call a certain “scarcity”—which is another way of speaking of an impoverishment of thought.

I know Joel Neto somewhat from the periphery. In recent years, however, we have grown closer, through a friendship and mutual respect strengthened by the positions he has taken as a staunch advocate for greater common sense among those on the political right who govern the Azores. With time, the journalist and writer has become one of the pillars of resistance to the conservatism that is increasingly taking root among us. Without fear and without circumlocution, he has strained old friendships and confronted the powers that be. Along the way, there was still time to help create, at Lar Doce Livro, one of the Region’s most important cultural institutions.

For that very reason, the first piece of counsel in this text is addressed to Joel. It is simply to alert him that the Wikipedia page bearing his name is out of date. Not only does it fail to mention the increase in the number of members of his family, but it also states that he sits on the Regional Council for Culture—something which, as far as I am able to ascertain, is no longer true.

Joel Neto was, after all, an integral part of that body from its beginnings, and at various moments in the history of our islands he was also a voice whose counsel carried weight within the cultural sphere. Recognition eventually came at the hands of those who removed him, who sought to purge and censor him: the hands that manipulate the affairs of Bettencourt Palace, and the whispers of the shadows that inhabit its corridors. He was removed from the Council for Culture, and there are even those who say that attempts were made to remove his books from key places in our public square.

On that same wavelength, he has recently once again become the target of a concerted campaign of attacks and ridicule, frequently emanating from voices I respect and from people whom I know to be better than this. On social media, the cruelty of words has intensified, and the thorns of ready-made phrases have struck, across the board, at a family, at a free man, and at the good faith of someone willing to denounce injustice.

I know well some of those who have taken hold of the spear now thrust into him. And so I make myself a counsellor, if only to leave one message unmistakably clear: this cannot be the way forward. Not for those who govern, nor for those who aspire to govern. A person in power must never attack the governed from above, least of all when that attack arises from taking up the grievances of someone who, when the opportunity presents itself, may very well turn around and thrust that same spear into the ruler.

Voltaire once spoke of the impunity of tyrants and the mediocrity of those who pretend themselves absolved. Sousa Lara, now an ideologue of the Salazarist ranks, entered history through the unfounded persecution he carried out, during his time as Secretary, against the writer who would later become a Nobel laureate, José Saramago. And King Duarte, the fifteenth-century monarch, wrote The Loyal Counsellor to warn us about ethics, morality, and their absence from the corridors of power.

The counsel, therefore, can be none other than common sense. Enough has already been said. If we truly wish to unite the archipelago through the days and commemorations that lie ahead, then we must cast aside disloyal counsel and contrived ways of thinking that can only do us harm.

Any other possibility will leave us in a land of the blind. There is still time to put resentment aside. To quote Jénifer—or the Princess of France: “On an island, things are forgotten more quickly.”

May they know how to forget the war, so that they may begin the work of peace.

Alexandra Manes is from Flores Island but lives on Terceira Island in the Azores. She is a regular contributor to several Azorean newspapers, a political and cultural activist, and has served in the Azorean Parliament.

NOVIDADES will feature occasional opinion pieces from leading thinkers and writers in the Azores, providing the diaspora and those interested in the current state of the Azores with a sense of the significant perspectives on some of the archipelago’s issues.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL).