Small Town Spirit: the strange tale of the ghost that haunted a town hall
No matter how many people tell you otherwise, politics is what happens away from the ballot box.
To be clear, I’m not going full Russell Brand and telling you not to vote. It’s a civic duty that people have fought for your right to do, and not acting on it is disrespecting their memory. However, a lot of extremely powerful people want you to believe that for anyone outside of the political machine, being politically active consists of turning up on election day, putting an X on a form, then merrily tottering home. Safe in the knowledge that you have “done your bit” and you don’t have to think about it until next election day. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Those same influential people want to paint activists as annoying radicals at best and terrorists at worst when the truth is that politics is activism. It’s being the change you want to see in any way you can. Whether that’s by funding causes near to your heart, volunteering your time for those in need or spreading the word about a political candidate with your best interests at heart. At a time like this, when just thinking about politics makes me want to jump in front of a train, narrowing your focus to what you can change can do amazing things.
Not just for yourself, but for your whole community to! As a matter of fact, a small town in Spain showed just what can happen after a concentrated campaign. One single photo started a chain reaction that led to genuinely incredible things happening. Things that, admittedly, had little to do with local politics, but if anything, it says even more about what a united community can do, when one causes a local mayor’s office to consider their stance on ghost infestations!
Why did this town have a ghost?
On February 3rd, 2017, a local council member of Vegas del Genil, a small town outside of Granada, Spain, was working late. In the small hours of the morning, he was still working away in his office when he heard something in the hallway.
Describing his experience to The Ideal, he said, “I heard a strange rustling sound in the hallway, like someone was dragging files across the floor.” Fearing that someone had broken in, the councillor went and took a photo of the corridor. What he saw in that photo was something he could never have expected.
Confronted with what seemed to be the ghost of a small child, the councillor, who has remained anonymous ever since the event, immediately locked himself in his office. One must wonder how much good that would do if you’re genuinely dealing with a ghost, but the very last thing you’re doing in that situation is thinking rationally, I guess. He sent the photo to his work WhatsApp group along with a plea for someone to come pick him up.
His story, along with the unsettling photo, went viral among the small community, and the town mayor suddenly found himself at the centre of one of the strangest acts of political pressure ever. After fellow townsfolk found that the corridor was colder than the rest of the town hall, the entire community rose up in arms, demanding that Mayor Leandro Martín hire an exorcist to remove this ghost from his own town hall. Truly, there’s no limit to what an engaged community can achieve, whether in this world or the next!