We have so much more to do...

I haven't done one of these in a while. It isn't the fault of one government. This is the fault of many. This is systemic and abhorrent. To those who claim there is no austerity, that people are just lazy - and they know damn well who they are - you don't understand because you won't understand. You refuse to. And you obviously don't care. Because if you did, you wouldn't be allowing this to happen. This is a real and terrifying struggle for far too many people ... and we're the good guys? One of the most powerful, economically stable and rich countries in the world? And we treat our vulnerable, needy, poor and struggling citizens in the manner we do?

This is just one facet of the greed based society in which we live, where the trickle down economic principle is so obviously so wrong, where the strong tease the weak without actually, genuinely, having the strength to help. A system that champions banking bonuses over child poverty, that champions tax cuts over education, is hideously flawed.

I'm not saying that we have to pander to everyone regardless of how engaged they may be. This isn't a call to allow everyone to sit in their pants in front of a 50 inch screen watching Jeremy Kyle eating food they didn't work for in a house they don't have to pay for in a community they do nothing for! This isn't a call to let anyone and everyone do whatever they like regardless of their abilities, status, dreams and market orientated gullibility.

I am saying that our priorities as individuals, as communities, as a society, as a nation have to change. Teachers buying clothes and food for their students because the parents have nothing; food banks becoming a normal way of life for some; the despicable, unthinking, uncaring policy amendments which force those who are desperate to do better into worse conditions (welfare, benefits, social care, individual allowances) are not the way forward. They are a massive step backwards towards greater division, anger, hatred, fear, wealthy antipathy and poverty driven anarchy. And we promote and propagate this by continuing to allow our various governments to follow a path of greed-based, growth orientated, high profit driven policies that marginalise society solely in terms of haves and have nots.

Whatever your political persuasion, you cannot fail to see that, as a nation, we are failing our people. Across all walks of life. We cannot put profit over promise anymore. Those who have more have a responsibility to those who have less. Those who have less also have a responsibility within their own communities, but they can only fulfil that with opportunity to do so. How can you expect those who are now seen as being at the very bottom of society to strive for anything when they have nothing to start with? No hopes, no dreams, no education, no food, no clothes, no comfort at all. Everyone has a right to the same opportunities. How individuals use those opportunities is up to them. But we are failing the basic needs of our most vulnerable people.

This isn't to say that people should not be responsible for themselves. Of course we should. But we all need help sometimes and that's often dependent on where you sit in a society's hierarchy; whether that's filling in a tax form, completing a job application, submitting immigration status documentation, applying for benefits or whatever.

You'll have to forgive my anger when companies profit billions of pounds and complain that the tax burden is restricting their growth and limiting their ability to pay their shareholder dividends. Surely the very fact that they make such huge profits is testament to their strength and the promise of benefits to their communities and society in general. Please excuse my utter disgust when yet another sustainable development in energy production is shelved in favour of something damaging, short sighted and "cheap" ( not for future generations it bloody isn't!). And do forgive my sometimes expletive ridden polemics on the injustices of our system of governance where poverty and division are rife, rage is on the increase and we systematically rip funding from the public. Austerity is real. It's just not everyone is living it.

But God help you if you're poor, disabled, vulnerable, unwell, ill-educated, unskilled and unseen, regardless of how hard you try to work, or how much a part of your community you wish to be, because governments won't.

We need a real change. Not one of anarchy and division, but one of sense and understanding; a social outlook with liberal views in a conservative (as in not profligate) society. It's not a pipe dream. We just need more people to understand the global reality rather than our personal selfishness.

I am not a saint and I am not an evangelist. You can call me a hypocrite if you like but we should all have a look at ourselves before we start throwing stones at glass houses. And sometimes, just sometimes, I think we all need a nudge to remind us that we all have more to do, that we can all do a little bit more and that it matters that we do.

Thank you for reading this. It's a bit longer than I had intended.

Now read what inspired this post:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/01/teachers-buy-children-food-clothes-mattress-funerals-child-poverty?CMP=share_btn_fb

It's Tough Being Human - but we all are, so let's just get on with being Human

Recent events astonish me. I don't know how people think. Or why they think the way they do. I consider myself open to discussion, debate and conversation. Where the evidence and argument are strong enough I am perfectly prepared to change my mind. I am not wedded to an idea simply because I think it. And thinking something is VERY different to knowing it.

I might not agree with people but I try to understand why they think the way they do and trust that they have attempted to see why others think differently. But when opinion is touted as fact and supported by further opinion rather than fact, that option disappears.

I fear for our present and our future where discourse is based solely on the idea that someone should be vilified, shunned and shamed for not thinking like someone else, just because someone else said it, no matter that there is no attempt at understanding; where monsters in power shut down those who would question them with lies that ,by repetition and bombast, become truths; where fear is something to be championed not eradicated; where respect is based on power and violence rather than honour and trust; where belief overpowers evidence; where humans spit on other humans because it makes them feel better or liken them to cockroaches who should be blown out of the water if they try to escape horrors visited on them by other humans; where children are shot in their classrooms by other children.

We have so much to be proud of; arts and science and sport, community, knowledge, friendship, exploration, adventure, passion, truth, joy, diversity, experience, love. And yet we are bombarded by the opposite with such regularity and force, questioned and mistrusted for requiring explanation and clarity that it becomes difficult to even raise the issues without being insulted or threatened.

There are so many options to change this, but it requires governments, rulers, politicians, public figures, personalities, celebrities, employers, employees, teachers, students to accept a complete shift in the judgemental state of being to which we have all become accustomed and in which we are educated and employed.
It takes acts of kindness and a soft touch; it takes listening rather than telling; it takes a desire to learn and to experience.

We are not weaker by refusing to have guns or calling for truth or being accountable and taking responsibility for how we live our lives. We are not wrong to call someone out when they do something wrong; complaining about noisy neighbours, reporting criminal activity; impeaching those in power for their lies and deceit. We are stronger through our understanding and our passion for knowledge and community, our openness and unity because of our experiences than we can ever be by shutting ourselves away behind walls built on fear and misunderstanding; selfishness and restriction.

It's a shame people can't see that. It's a shame we are required to be pigeon-holed from birth; you're black, you're white, you're sporty, you're a scientist, you like maths, you're gay, you're disabled, you're an actor, you're a factory worker, you're a man, you're a woman. We are all these things, but first we are human. And we need other humans in order to survive.

Homelessness requires more than a helping hand

We can all only do what we, individually, can or are prepared to. However, whatever we feel, whether it be pity, compassion, guilt, fear, even shame for one's own situation compared to that of someone who is homeless - regardless of their reason for being so - means nothing to those who are in a position to genuinely do something worthwhile and positive. 

WE can band together as volunteers, fundraising and working at soup kitchens, opening our homes, offering beds, work, education, blankets, a friendly face and an open conversation. 

Shamefully, until those in power, those who are supposed to provide governance for their own people, especially those who need it most, see past their own feathered nests and beyond what might feather them further, we fight a losing battle. 

I am proud of the work that those who are able and prepared to do provide - God knows it is needed - but it appears impossible to make politicians aware of their responsibility, the shame they should feel for their lack of appropriate action, or indeed the compassion they should feel for their fellow humans, let alone their responsibility to the people they represent. 

Regardless of what an individual may have done for the country, whether it be in the armed forces, as a postal worker, suffering from mental illness or simply turfed out because the council couldn't or wouldn't pay the rent on a private property that wasn't fit to live in, everyone should be treated the same. 

As a human. 

But it should not be down to an individual giving money, or food, or shelter, warmth, comfort, a shoulder to lean on or an ear to bend. It is down to all of us, everyone en masse, represented by the forces of authority and governance. Yet, whether those forces be left or right leaning, socially minded or corporately monetised, they systematically let down or simply ignore those who need their help most - presumably because there's no immediate financial benefit or investment opportunity in it. 

When a government department weighs up the cost of death against budget and decides it is preferable to spending money, as appears to be the case across the benefits system (and that is not just down to the Conservatives, I imagine this has been a factor for a very long time! They just happen to be right at the blunt end), we need to change the manner in which we think about our people and our nation's traditional activities. 

When the most useful, dull, unspectacular causes die out because money is withdrawn from charitable trusts; when volunteers are relied upon to provide public services (manning and providing for drop in centres, food banks, after hours clinics, therapy groups) we need to reconsider where our educational and moral compass is really taking us. 

As individuals we are capable of so much, but as government has consistently shown us, from millions marching against the Iraq war to the rancid manner Health and Welfare are treated, their disgust of and contempt towards the people they govern needs not only to be challenged but called out and changed. And the only way I can see that happening is through education and understanding. 

That's not liberal, or socialist or conservative, that's just human. We all want a quick fix, but there isn't one. And it's going to be bloody hard to persuade those with everything that those with nothing deserve more.