Captains log:  25th November

Confession:  this is not the blog which should be here today.  But when I woke up this morning and watched the news, it hit me how much our world and society is really changing and I asked myself the question; where will it end?    Do you believe that we should bring back corporal punishment to bring safety back to our streets?  Do you believe in ‘an eye for an eye’?

Our world is beautiful.  And what a shower of shit it’s turning into.  Like many people, when I was young my beloved Grandparents told me stories of their youth.  It seemed all really tough and rather sad at the time.  They didn’t have electric lights, indoor toilets, fan ovens, automatic kettles, phones, TV’s…you get the picture.

Here’s what they didn’t have; kids who don’t interact with real people because they are glued to their phones.  Kids getting ‘groomed’ online.  Kids thinking its cool to carry knives and more recently guns. Teenagers running streets.  Kids killing kids. Children committing suicide because they were bullied.  In any society there will always be those people and I’m sure they were around at the time of my grandparents growing up but they were the exception, not the rule.  Is that where our communities are heading?  That good, law-abiding people will end up being the exception? I’m scared and you should be too.

When I was a kid, the thought of getting in trouble with the police would have been the VERY last thing I would have wanted (second only to Michael killing me!) but now?  Now, those kids aren’t scared.  Even the threat of prison is no longer a threat.   Some of these kids simply don’t care.  It just enhances the reputation and image they want of themselves.  They want the label that they are not to be messed with. AND THESE ARE KIDS!  And how do you start this illustrious career? Well, you could start as a Roadman.  

Defined by Urban Dictionary as teenage boys who drop out of school and instead do these things: 

Only wears trackie bottoms with hoodie, rides around on bike (normally in the middle of the road on bikes too small for them – they are still growing after all!) 

Personal likes include (but not limited to) committing crimes (robbery in particular), likes to be aggressive and intimidating in their behaviour.  Aspire to live on benefits, but until such a time when they reach the pinnacle of success (jail time or benefit loving slouch) will just be a complete and utter twat.

Violence has always been indiscriminate but now it seems to be common place too.   

In the early 90’s my friend was murdered.  By her ex-boyfriend.  It was devastating for everybody who loved her and, at the time, one of the most horrific murders the policemen involved in the investigation had ever seen.  Today, these murders should be just as shocking.  But we are becoming desensitised to these crimes.  Because there are so many of them.  DAILY.  

Recently, on Facebook, my local communities feed has been full.  Everyday, another theft, burglary, anti-social behaviour in their street/outside their door.  When I moved here it was for a couple of reasons.  It was close to a lovely infants school, it was close to my office and it was safe.  Sadly, I no longer feel safe and now I also worry about the safety of my children.  Not necessarily just where I live, but the town that I once viewed as being a safe community is no longer visible.

It would seem that respect for anybody is dead.  When I was a kid, the Police had both the presence (and resources) to deal with these issues. They were in most part feared.  You didn’t want to get in trouble with the law.  And you certainly didn’t want to get thrown in the slammer.

And the police seem to be the ones in cuffs. It doesn’t matter that you uphold the law.  I’m not sure how they can do that when most of their powers have been removed.  Police force admittance numbers are apparently going down.  Not shocking news is it? Who would even want to join the police force? 

I know a couple of retired police ‘people’.  One is married to my friend ‘Brian’.  He’s nice man, a good man.  After spending so many years in the force, I wonder how he feels about the things he has seen and how redundant the force must feel just trying to protect people.  Read that again. Just trying to protect people.  

A friend I work with recently took her flatmate to a local hospital in the evening close to where they live in London.  What she described was something out of the Wild West.  Both girls were scared and that was just waiting in the queue to be seen.  The medical staff in that hospital DO NOT get paid enough to have to go there every day.  Fact.  I’m pretty sure the medical profession go into it as they want to help people and potentially saves lives.  Why would they want to when they feel and are often abused and assaulted in their place of work?

When did our world start such a decline? When did we get scared even in our own homes?  Isn’t life supposed to be cherished?  My heart breaks for future generations.  As I said in a previous blog, I do think the pre-teen generation of today is going to make a difference and turn the world but they can’t do it alone.  So how do we help our future generations from killing each other?  How do we assist them in showing them that a society who thinks murder, race hate crimes, sexual assaults is acceptable?   Reading of the community in Birmingham turning vigilante to get their streets back under control is kind of admirable.  But really bloody dangerous too.

And here’s the but….the media love to post comments alongside headlines of crimes and there is ALWAYS one person who writes ‘bring back corporal punishment’.  Is that the answer?  Here’s a question for you.  If, like Jury Service, ‘they’ randomly selected members of the general public to push the button (because we don’t know what form the death sentence would take), would you do it?  Would you take away another persons life? Does an eye for an eye really work?

In the late 80’s I watched a documentary ‘Fourteen Days in May’ with my parents and sister about the last two weeks in the life of a man called Edward Earl Johnson who was on Death Row in America.  Throughout his incarceration, Johnson protested his innocence citing that he was framed.  My whole family watched this programme in tears as, we too, believed him to be innocent.  He was sentenced and executed in Mississippi for the murder of a policeman and the sexual assault of a lady in her 60’s.  He claimed that he was framed and that his ‘confession’ was made under duress [threatened by the investigating officers).

A British lawyer was desperately trying for a reprieve in those last two weeks but it obviously failed. The witness changed her story on many occasions and when another witness came forward, which should have cleared him, she was allegedly sent home and no details were taken.  In a follow-up documentary the lawyer claimed to prove ‘conclusively that Johnson was innocent and had been framed’.  

Edward Earl Johnson was sent to die on May 20, 1987 in the gas chamber.  The gas chamber!  I can’t even go there.

But it brings me back to my question; if you were selected at random to be the one to ‘take’ a life, because a Jury found that person guilty, could you do it?  

We need to stand together to ensure that good wins.  Show that we won’t tolerate this decline in our society.  Stand up and be counted. For the record, I am not promoting vigilante groups as the way forward.  Being a part of our community does not mean we need to take the law into our own hands.  But we can become part of community driven groups who look out for each other, look out for our neighbours.

And one of the first things we should look at is parental responsibility.  Show your child that kindness is good.  Sensitivity towards others is good.  You can’t frighten people into respecting you. Respect should be something we earn by being the best version of human.   Come and live in my house for a week.   I have two growing boys and I’m on my own with them.  They know I’m in charge.  If I hadn’t made that clear at the beginning, I could potentially (I say potentially because if you’ve met my boys’ it seems very unlikely) have two sons’ ruling my house and in turn, me.  Yeah, that shit ain’t happening.  

Life is a gift (unless you’re a spider, sorry Mum and Budda).  Be part of the change in society.  Live your life with kindness and respect.  Sadly, this won’t stop others behaving like animals but you get to know you did your best.  For you, for your family and for our really beautiful world.

BIG SNOGS

Kitty xxx