Category: Society

This Is A Travesty

On By WinstonIn Discrimation, Global Issues, Politics, Society, Values, WarfareLeave a comment

I have to take a moment out from my month of poetry to draw attention to this. Over 200 girls were abducted from their school at gunpoint in Nigeria.  While no one has claimed responsibility the well known terrorist group Boko Haram is believed to be behind the kidnapping.  Read the full story here.

As horrible as this is, it get’s worse. No one is trying to find these girls. Not the Nigerian government, not the UN, not even the Americans. They normally jump at the chance to generate some good P.R. on the international stage, but not this time.

Why isn’t the world beating a path to Nigeria to find these girls?  Well, it’s because it’s in Africa.  These sorts of things happen there and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Also, the girls are…. well, they’re black.  It’s terrible to say, but it’s true.  If a couple of hundred white girls were abducted by terrorists, the whole western military apparatus would already be mobilizing.

But it’s Africa… and the girls aren’t white.  Besides, we’re all tied up with this territorial dispute with Russia.  Besides, we can’t get drawn into another foreign war.  Besides…. they’re not our daughters.

I’m not advocating an Iraq or Afghanistan type invasion.  I’m talking about a dedicated strike force tasked solely with finding and executing the kidnappers and any available affiliates, repatriating the girls to their families and then going home.

I want to send a very clear message that there are some lines that cannot be crossed anymore.

But it’s Africa…. and the girls are black.

If the girls were Ukrainian and it looked like Russia was behind it, the tanks would already be rolling.  Because that’s the drum we’re beating right now…. and the girls would be white.

Despondently Yrs, Winston

NaPoWriMo Day Twenty-Seven

On By WinstonIn Environment, NaPoWriMo, Poetry, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

Commercial whaling is basically a vile practice.  It has been outlawed by the international community and yet some countries persist.  Fortunately, some very brave people are committed to ending this crime.  They are……

The Sea Shepherds

They roam the oceans to the south,
To keep the whales free.
Sea Shepherds lives are on the line,
To end the whalers spree.

Outnumbered they persist despite,
The fact they’re risking all.
To save a whale they’ll take that chance,
They’re answering their call,

The Japanese insist science,
Is why they hunt the whale.
But thousands slain can only tell,
What kind of meat’s for sale.

The Shepherds play a deadly game,
Against a deadly foe.
But they believe right can beat might,
Once more to sea they go.

We can’t afford to lose more whales,
The vital role they play,
We’ve lost too many as it is,
The time to stop’s today.

Support your local Sea Shepherds

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo Day Nineteen

On By WinstonIn Bullying, Discrimation, Enlightenment, Global Issues, NaPoWriMo, Personal Responsibility, Poetry, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

I realize that I am part of that group of people referred to as “the chattering classes”.  I sit and write about all the things I see, but I don’t actually do anything to change them.  This is about me and all the others like me.

Enough To Make You….

I sat and read the news today
The world scrolling by.
Mans’ inhumanity to man,
Enough to make you cry.

The murders are quite bad enough,
The wars more horror still.
The famines, rapes, and plundering,
Enough to make you ill.

Anti-gay bills and rights denied,
More vile than they seem.
Enforced values on someone else,
Enough to make you scream.

What do I do about these crimes?
Like you they make me sad.
But just like most I do nothing,
Enough to make you mad.

So if you look around the world,
And find compassion lacked.
I hope the outrage that you feel’s,
Enough to make you act.

If you don’t like the news….. Change The World, Not The Channel!

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo Day Fourteen

On By WinstonIn Environment, NaPoWriMo, Poetry, Politics, SocietyLeave a comment

If todays post seems a little bleak, just chalk it up to me still suffering with my cold and reading way too much news on my day off. 

Not Today…. But SOON.

Now once again the skies are dark,
No rockets fly today.
The drive and budget for the stars,
Have long since gone away.

We sit and watch our planet fail,
We know it cannot last.
Our dreams of getting off our rock,
Now languish in our past.

We built a chance then squandered it.
On petty brinkmanship,
Our leaders need to buy votes then,
Denied our future trip.

We could have worked as one for once
Our future to redeem.
Instead we stood our ground to make,
Our nation-state supreme

If we had looked ahead a bit,
We wouldn’t be here now.
Where fifty billion mourn the loss,
Of Earth’s last, lonely cow .

When oceans rose and drowned our shores,
We shouldn’t have been here.
There were the means just not the will,
To save mankind so dear.

So now I stand alone and watch,
The ending of my race,
I look up at the stars and wish,
That we had gone to space.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo Day Eleven

On By WinstonIn NaPoWriMo, Poetry, Politics, Rants, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

I’ve seen and heard one too many ads attacking Liberal leader JustinTrudeau. Instead of trying to frighten voters with Justins plan to legalize marijuana, why not talk about your own plans to decriminalize it?  I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a whole lot of ads attacking the Conservatives.  Just trying to level the playing field here.

The Conservative Playbook

Release the hounds it’s time to vote,
There’s character to smear,
Don’t educate constituents,
Just make damn sure they fear.

The sound byte out of context is,
Our favourite blade to twist.
The public will not hear our foes,
If our lies have them pissed.

We can do just what we like,
And no one cares a bit.
‘Cause every press release we drop,
It’s “PR spin that shit.”

So let the others have their say,
Then remix every part.
The public’s sure to go for it.
We know they’re not that smart,

If voters start to question us,
It’s Chretien’s name we’ll use.
Then power’s ours for four more years,
To squander and abuse.

Cheers, Winston

Ahhhhh Texas

On By WinstonIn Society, Uncategorized, ValuesLeave a comment

There’s a story on Gawker about a man in San Antonio Texas who accidentally shot his girlfriend…. In the chest… With a shotgun. (She is apparently in stable condition now). So far, so tragic.

Given that it was an accident and involved a shotgun you might be thinking hunting accident. Sadly, that was not the case. It apparently went down more like this.

The guys’ ex-girlfriend showed up and there was a verbal altercation. The boyfriend decided that the best way to resolve the situation with the ex involved getting his shotgun. Isn’t that your goto position in a “verbal altercation”?

His girlfriend tried to stop him from shooting his ex. Mr. Wonderful then accidentally shot his current girlfriend… in the chest… with a shotgun. No word on the ex, but I’m guessing she signed up for that private Mars mission that’s been recruiting. Even that may not be far enough away from this guy.

You might wonder why I mention Texas in the title. Surely this could’ve happened anywhere. That is the unfortunate truth, but this story has a twist. It seems the police were initially unsure if charges would be pressed. Now let’s make sure we understand that. He shot his girlfriend while she was trying to keep him from shooting his ex-girlfriend over an argument, but the San Antonio P.D. doesn’t really see anything wrong with all that. S.A.P.D. eventually decided to charge him with “possible aggravated assault”.

I agree with them on a couple of points. He definitely assaulted his girlfriend (with a shotgun!), and it’s pretty safe to say he was aggravated. I’m just not sure why they put the word possible in there. Are they saying “Maybe he wasn’t aggravated.”? I tend to think it’s because it’s Texas. Maybe they just don’t think that blasting your girlfriend with a shotgun should count as assault.

Ahhhhh Texas.

Cheers, Winston

Boy Scouts of America Lifted Ban On Gays

On By WinstonIn Religion, Society, Uncategorized, Values2 Comments

Cue the wrathful Christians. Certain large Christian groups have already announced the end of their affiliation with the BSA. They are cutting funding, and actively encouraging to pull their children out of the Scouts. Apparently these people haven’t got a single clue what a Christian is supposed to be. Christians aren’t dosed to judge, they’re supposed to forgive.

The BSA has made the right call. In an organization which promotes respect and equality, it was becoming increasingly hard to justify a policy of exclusion. Particularly one based on a set of standards which are no longer as widely held as they once were. No matter how strong your belief, it doesn’t give you the right to attempt to coerce others to follow them. That’s exactly what some allegedly Christian organizations tried to do. For years they “encouraged” the Scouts to reject any boy who didn’t live a lie. Now that the BSA has decided to favor inclusiveness over bigotry, the bigots have gone from coercion to punishment. Who knows how many youth will never get to experience the joys of Scouting because some people want to play God and judge when God has reserved that right for His Son.

Frankly, my God is going to be more likely to judge someone who let’s their own petty prejudices hurt a child than they are a gay child. If you or your organization believe that a belief, any belief, is more important than the happiness and social development of a child, you have my pity. If anybody is going to be judged, I bet it’s not the Scouts. I bet it’s the groups that want to exclude and punish kids for not living the way you want them to.

Personally, I’m thrilled the Boy Scouts of America has lifted it’s ban on gay kids. Now let’s work on the ban on gay troop leaders. One step at a time means every step is important.

Cheers, Winston

Do Your Parenting Yourself

On By WinstonIn Film Reviews, Media, Movies, Personal Responsibility, Pop Culture, Society1 Comment

Tim Winter, who is apparently the president of the grandly named “Parents Television Council” recently wrote an article for Fox News.com. In his article, Mr Winter decries the failure of the movie rating system. I almost agree with him. Almost.

I agree that you can’t base viewing decisions on something as vague as PG-13 rating. This is particularly true if you don’t understand the ratings system. In the article, he complains that “The King’s Speech” received a worse rating than “Drag Me To Hell”. Here’s the reason. Most people understand that “Drag Me To Hell” isn’t based on reality. It’s also a morality play. Bad things happen to the bad person. Ratings boards LOVE morality plays. They will put up with a lot of questionable content if there is a clear and simple moral lesson. In this case, the message is: don’t willfully hurt others to get ahead. Not to spoil the movie, but the main character does just that and the rest of the movie revolves around their punishment.

“The King’s Speech” on the other hand is based firmly in reality. It is about King George the fifth learning to overcome his stutter so that he could address his people via radio during World War Two. Because it’s a real story about real people, there are no easy moral lessons. During the movie the King s speech therapist has him use profanity as part of an exercise. Being real people, specifically the King of England, there is a much greater likelihood of impressionable people emulating the language. The great irony of course arises because I doubt if anyone of an impressionable age was likely to watch that particular movie. Nonetheless, that’s the thinking behind the ratings on the two movies.

He also complains about ratings creep. This is the tendency of ratings standards to become more lax over time. This is a very real phenomenon and reflects the cultural evolution within our society. Profanity, sexuality, and violence have become more prominent in society and it’s unrealistic to expect our entertainment and the standards to which it’s held not to evolve with it.

Ultimately, it’s up to the parents to teach their children about how to judge what they’re going to watch. In my case, this meant watching movies either before or with my daughter. I watched a lot of things I didn’t really want to, but it’s the commitment I made to her. It was my way of protecting her from the worst of what was out there and giving her the tools to make her own decisions instead of relying on the ratings on the box.

I guess my message is this…. Don’t let some stranger decide what’s right for your kids. Do your parenting yourself.

Cheers, Winston

KEEP MERIDA “BRAVE”!

On By WinstonIn Disney, Media, Personal, Pop Culture, Society, Uncategorized, Values1 Comment

After writing 30 poems in 30 days, I gave myself some celebratory time off. Then I ran across this and had to speak up about it. Apparently Merida, the main character in the recent Pixar movie “BRAVE” is about to be inducted into the Disney Princess club. So far so good. Her father’s a king, so she definitely belongs there. Also, she’s a great role model for young girls. Merida is bold, intelligent, courageous, strong, caring and everything any parent knows their little girl can be.

She also looks like a real girl. At least much more so than many other animated young females. That seems to be a problem for Disney. The following image highlights the difference between Merida as she appears in the movie, and whoever the hell it is that the executives at Disney want to turn her into.

image

On the right, is movie Merida and on the left, Disney s new and “improved” version. Note the wasp-waist, enhanced bustline, curvier hips, fancier and less practical dress, more manageable hair. It all adds up to someone who clearly has nothing at all to do with the character in the movie. Instead of encouraging girls to be strong, independent and their own person, it says “If you want to be a “Princess” you have to be a cookie cutter-sexualized-Barbie looking version of yourself.”

So if you haven’t guessed yet, I’m more than a little bothered by this. The good news is…. I’m not the only one. “A Mighty Girl” has started a petition on change.org urging Disney to rethink their decision. If you’re interested, you can find it and sign it here.

I don’t know if Disney will listen, but I think it’s important to try. If we don’t, who else is going to keep Merida “BRAVE”.

Cheers, Winston

NaPoWriMo Day:23 The Terribly Short Wizard

On By WinstonIn Bullying, NaPoWriMo, Society, ValuesLeave a comment

The other day, I was thinking that after NaPoWriMo I might like to write a short story. While debating what to write about I doodled the following phrase.

A Terribly Short Story About A Terribly Short Wizard With A Terribly Short Temper.

It became this poem. My 23rd for NaPoWriMo.

Enjoy!

The Terribly Short Wizard

Some time ago not very far
From where we sit right now.
There lived a wizard feared by all
But laughed at anyhow.

He lived there in a quite tall house
And wore the tallest hat.
For he, himself was very short
And more so when he sat.

His chairs all had the longest legs
They’d kneel to let him up.
So he could sit there eye to eye
If guests should come to sup.

But guests were few for few would dare
To risk the wizards wrath.
As it was sure to bring ill luck
To cross the wizards path.

He’d been laughed at for his shortness
Back when he was a kid.
He had been hurt that’s why he did
The horrid things he did.

If he could make them all afraid
They’d leave him on his own .
There’d be no one to laugh at him
If he was all alone.

So he lived there in his tall house
Alone and near forgot.
And came to know that loneliness
Was all his anger bought.

So when somebody laughs at you
Don’t let it change your heart.
You’ve all your life ahead of you
That hurt is just one part.

Cheers, Winston