The 11th Day of the 11th Month

At the Cenotaph - S Sassoon

I saw the Prince of Darkness, with his Staff,
Standing bare-headed by the Cenotaph:
Unostentatious and respectful, there
He stood, and offered up the following prayer.
“Make them forget, O Lord, what this Memorial
Means; their discredited ideas revive;
Breed new belief that War is purgatorial
Proof of the pride and power of being alive;
Men’s biologic urge to readjust
The Map of Europe, Lord of Hosts, increase;
Lift up their hearts in large destructive lust;
And crown their heads with blind vindictive Peace.”
The Prince of Darkness to the Cenotaph
Bowed. As he walked away I heard him laugh.

Fitting In

Human beings are social animals. We like to be part of a group. Ideally this would be a group of like-minded, friendly peers of our own choosing. Eventually if we are lucky, we have established a group like this (of varying sizes) by our adulthood.

However, for some reason society insists on throwing our children into large groups where the only thing in common is the year of their birth. Group dynamics and social status are set by who you are friends with and what your interests are. Often however, there is one child, for whatever reason doesn't quite fit in.

This would be my son. He is nearly 8 years old. The youngest of his year. I feel guilty as I know that it is somewhat my fault. We don't socialise with the other parents, other than superficial chitchat outside the classroom, but then we have very little in common with them. The area where we live, success is based on what car you drive, how big your house is, how much stuff you have. And in those terms, we are not successful. We don't drive, we live in a too small maisonette, and we don't do stuff. We are a bit weird, a bit radical, a bit different. Those aren't good things to a child.

It has come to a head this year when my son's best friend left school without a word. Owen came back from his holidays and his friend just wasn't there anymore. And the worst thing, he didn't even bother saying goodbye. (His mum has my contact details. There was no excuse to do that to a child.) But having his buddy gone has meant that his position in the class has changed. He is bestfriendless, and it hurts. The other kids seem to now barely tolerate him. He isn't allowed to join in games, he is told he is "rubbish", and that "boys with O in their names and who wear glasses can't join in..." Talking to the teacher hasn't really gone anywhere. We had assurances that things would be kept an eye on, and that support would be given. I mean, adults miss their friends, and this is an eight year old! However, I don't really think the support has been given to him.

I honestly don't know what to do. While I understand what is going on, the repercussions for us are that we have a miserably and stroppy child who argues and sulks over the slightest incident at home, because he is unhappy at school. I can't condone the bad behaviour, but I hate telling him off constantly for rudeness and inconsideration. It is upsetting as I feel so useless.

I know kids can be cruel. However, now having children of my own, I know that some of that cruelity is based on parental response. If your kids see you taking the piss out of other people they aren't going to think twice about doing it themselves. If you make a huge deal about your plasmascreen tv, then someone that doesn't have one must be weird.

We need to change our materialism, thatcherite/blairite, dogeatdog attitude, yet I look at the majority of the children around here, and it isn't happening.



This depressing post was brought to you by fed-upness irritation, and hopelessness.

A Bad Thing

*Spits*

The BNP now have two MEPs!!!!!!

I am disgusted. I am disgusted at the stupidity and ignorance of the people that voted for them. I am sure that they would not have looked into the BNP's policies or past the shallow rhetoric saying what they think people want to hear.

The irony of it being the anniversary of the D-Day landings this weekend, and our country elects fascists to represent our country in Europe is just sad and horrifying beyond words.

Sometimes I have very little faith in humanity.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country.

Pro Choice does not equal Pro Abortion

I am completely, fundamentally, utterly Pro Choice. And I don't like abortions. But, seriously, who does? The Pro-lifers would have us believe that being Pro Choice means that we think abortion is a glorious thing, something to be celebrated. How wrong they are. I have been pregnant 3 times, but I only have 2 children. I was pregnant in Dec 06/Jan 07 and I had a miscarriage. It was one of the most horrible experiences of my life. But if, and it is a big if, I was ever in a situation where I knew that I could not cope with a pregnancy or a child for whatever reason, I would consider an abortion. I possibly wouldn't have it anyway. However the point is, that would be my choice and my choice alone.

Choosing have an abortion is probably THE most difficult decision that a woman would ever have to make in her life. I know of no-one who has ever taken the decision lightly. Abortion cannot be limited to only medical reasons, for incest or for rape. It must include the emotional reason, the financal reason, infact any reason why a woman would need an abortion. Why? Because ultimately, in my view, the lives of the living must come before the lives of the unborn. Women do not just become incubators as soon as they become pregnant. Once pregnant, personality does not step aside and the unborn foetus becomes the dominant force.

I wonder if the Pro Lifers feel that an embryo/foetus does not have a soul? Because to me, whatever is that spark of life that makes us what we are is rewoven into the universe (whether that be heaven or whatever) when it's human life ends, and it moves onto where-ever it goes next. (I personally feel that a spirit of an aborted or miscarried embryo/foetus would create itself once more in another pregnacy.) I ask because it would seem that they don't think they have a soul otherwise surely they would feel that an aborted baby would go straight back into the loving hands of God?

What a woman does with her body is none of anyone else's business. If pro-lifers don't like abortion then perhaps they should campaign for other linked issues. Health care, contraception, education, poverty, all those issues that have an impact on abortion rates. If our children were educated better, including about contraception, they wouldn't get/cause pregnancy. If poverty was abolished, then women wouldn't have to worry about raising their children. Simple things, but ones that would actually take some more effort than just lambasting women for their sexual choices.

(As an aside, I can not understand the Pro Life brigade that believe that the life of an unborn child is completely sacrosanct, yet as soon as it is born, commits a crime, than that's it, game over.)

(Second aside, other than Thou Shall Not Kill, which is conveniently ignored once you are born, there is absolutely no reference to abortion in the Bible. Check out this link to Sacred-texts.com http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/abib/index.htm#cnote )

Those Barbarians!

I am a big fan of those programmes like Time Team, Meet The Ancestors, Time Watch, most of the UKTV history programmes infact. I find them quite fascinating. Most of the time they are done quite sympathetically, and don't try to pass off the ancients as being these barbaric heathens.

I find it really irritating when programmes make out that our ancestors were savages who went around raping and pillaging. They seem to think that the world they lived in then was full of fear and violence. Who are we trying to kid here? This year alone almost THIRTY children have been murdered by OTHER CHILDREN in London!! What the fuck is going on? Our ancestors aren't the savage barbarians! We are!