Man for all Seasons.

Euro MP Richard Howitt.

Link to his interview in The Enquirer.

Link I find particularly harrowing.

Milk for the Road

Milk for the road

Subtle sickly sweet hypocrisies
turn them sour overnight
xenophobic by morning
Police and men from the council
demand that we move on
from their picturesque village
and neighbourly people
We are breaking the law
of aesthetic ambiance
causing the people
to become transmogrified
by our vicinity
to their cocoon
of acceptable association

This is one of the first poems I wrote.
It's about my family being moved on by police and council men
which was a regular occurrence.

What is truth?

For many people
If the personal delusion of who they think they are
were removed from them
then their personality would collapse
in a blithering heap of disorientation.

The truth of who we are is in how we are seen by God.
The truth is not in our own judgement or opinion or criterion or fantasy
the truth of who we are is what God sees when He looks at us.

By nature we compare ourselves with other people,
and by nature we need to find someone or something to be less than we are.
But at the end of the day it's all a human folly that can and has become an evil.
We are already witnesses to what can happen when the flaws in human nature become a political dogma legislated into law.
The beginning of knowing the truth is to see ourselves as a sinner in the sight of God.
This is the first photo in the album of seeing ourselves as God sees us.

Thou God seest me. Genesis 16:13.

Herrenvolk.

From the corner of my eye
I can almost see
in a recess of my mind
something dark is watching me
Moving in shadows
but not caused by light
emanating darkness

Held at the gate
by the keeper of the keys
kept in quarantine like a disease
Endlessly pacing
the confines of it's cell
Glaring defiantly
with the venom of hell

Here is
The accuser of my soul
the robber of my peace

Here is
The hand of iron
fashioned in a cross
fashioned to deceive

Here is
The God of racial supremacy
the master of the master race
the destroyer of worlds

And from you where can I flee
to the highest mountain or the deep blue sea
I will take you there with me.

Jackboot

As you get older you tend to see or have more of a handle on things as they are.
When you're younger you're full of ideals, you want to change the world.
Then one day you catch a glimpse in the mirror you don't like and realize this is the you that's just as bad as all the people you had wanted to save the world from.
Then you know you're not just the victim of all the bad stuff that goes on in the world you're also the perpetrator.
I suppose that's got something to do with the young being full of ideals and people who are a bit older receding into resignation.
Jesus said to his disciples - "you have more to learn but you cannot bear it all just now." I think some of what they could not bear was the truth about themselves in the sight of God.

Does this mean we should do nothing - No, we should still try but to me - not to change the world but to change one heart at a time beginning with our own.
What we need to find within ourselves is not the "good" but the "Jackbooted Goose-stepping Nazi." Subdue this part of ourselves first then the good will come.

Dale Farm Eviction - Wed 19th Oct 2011.

The Complicity of Silence.

The Stand

Dark times are coming
but do not despair
God has numbered every hair
a time will come when you will say
"I am glad I was there"

This is the Day
to live your Testimony
to express the cry within your soul
"Liberty" "Autonomy"
Arrayed against imposed control

Live a lifetime of Freedom
in this one gallant leap
Free in the air or Free in the deep
Face the Tyranny
Break the unholy allience
The brutality of evil men
The complicity of silence

Grasp the straws of Life
while you can
take the chance be your own man
Make The Stand
if only for a day
Live how you want to live
Say what you want to say.

I wrote this some years ago
I would like to dedicate it this morning
to the community of families living on Dale Farm
and also to those gathered to try and help them.

Time to Wake Up.

I believe that Britain is sleepwalking toward an evil act.

The forced eviction of a community of 86 families.
The destruction of their property.
100 children dragged out of school, just told to go with nowhere to go.
All pleas for an alternative site even at no expense to Basildon council refused,
and all other open spaces in their area blocked.

What are you doing about it?

Mr Justice Ouseley.

Mr Justice Ouseley, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, ruled that the Travellers delayed too long in challenging Basildon's decision to take direct action
against them, and said the council's actions were not disproportionate.

"The conclusion has been reached time and again that this is just the wrong site for Travellers," he said.

Lawyers for the Travellers argued that the council had failed to offer suitable alternative accommodation and to consider those vulnerable residents and children whose education would be disrupted by the eviction. But the judge said the planning system had always included a fair consideration of personal circumstances and that the residents must now leave voluntarily.

If distress and upset were caused by forcible eviction "it would be because of decisions made by the residents not to comply", he said.

The eviction would cause "considerable distress and disruption" but must go ahead "In my judgment the time has manifestly come for steps to enforce the law to be taken."
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 October 2011.

We have a Law.

"We have a law,
and according to that law he must die,
because he claimed to be the Son of God."

John 19:7.

The picture is of John Smith.
Who would have been Prime Minister in 1997,
but tragically died of a heart attack at age 55.

Mockin's Catchin'

Mockin's Catchin'

Is a saying I grew up with it was taught to me by my Parents
as a warning never to mock, make fun of or despise anyone.

Christ says the same thing in Matthew 7.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
For in the same way as you judge others, you will be judged,
and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Crosby Emergency.

By Mark Johnson, Crosby Herald.

Dale Farm travellers ‘look to’ Crosby. Oct 6th 2011.

SCORES of gypsies set to be evicted from Dale Farm in Essex could bring their caravan homes to Crosby, councillors believe.

Travellers have allegedly pinpointed the coastal park and Burbo Bank as possible locations to move to when they are eventually moved on.

The claims have apparently been made on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

An emergency meeting of worried councillors went ahead last week to look at ways to deter travellers from entering green spaces on Sefton’s coastline.

It was agreed that around £2,000 would be spent on wooden bollards to block any attempts to access.

Blundellsands councillor Paula Parry said: “We have had to get the bollards in very quickly.

“It was advertised on Twitter and Facebook that the gypsies might come here.”

The deterrents were installed immediately at the field entrance in Burbo Bank.

Cllr Peter Papworth said: “We had to do something in a hurry and it seemed sensible to do something because they said Crosby is a good site to go to.

“We’ve had wooden posts put in and they are about 2ft high.

“They will stop them entering the land.

“In the long run, getting the bollards in will be cheaper than trying to get rid of the gypsies if they were here.

“The decision had to be made in a hurry.”

Cllr Papworth added: “We’ve had gypsies here twice this year in Burbo Bank.

“The people of Blundellsands don’t want this to happen to their area again.

“We don’t wish gypsies any ill will but we just don’t want them to come here.

“We don’t want them in Waterloo either.

“We are looking at ways to stop them coming near the Lakeside too because we don’t want them there.”

Joseph Jones, chair of the Gypsy Council, said he thought speculation of a move north was not credible because the gypsies had firm ties in the south of England.

He did confirm that the Dale Farm gypsies had relatives living in the North West of England.

I found this story amusing so I thought I would share.
You can do a little mental exercise here -
If you replace the words Gypsy and Traveller with any other nationality, ethnic group or orientation it will give you an idea of just how marginalized Travelling People are.

Jean-Luc

What about a forced eviction with -no- relocation.

"Those people should move away" - Any suggestions as to where Mr Cameron?

PMQs - Something that bothers me about David Cameron's vocal support for the eviction
of the community of families living on Dale Farm, is that I found it to be small minded and unstatesmanlike for someone who holds the office of Prime Minister.

Evensong.

Careless Words.

They talk about them
like they are not there
they talk about them
like they do not hear
they talk about them
with a wink and a nod
as though everyone agrees
and everyone knows what they mean
when they say "traveller"

They make grandiose statements
career ending statements
hounded out of public office statements
if they made them about any other group
any other group in the world
apart from "travellers"

They would gladly load the cattle trucks
all that's lacking is a law
all that's lacking is the paper work
the corporate abdication of personal responsibility
and the police would obey the law
and the army would obey the law
they could muster an Einsatzgruppen in a day

And if you stand perfectly still
in this slip of the lip
you can feel humanity slip
you can feel the earth slip
toward oblivion.

Evensong.

Give up your Jews
Give up your Jews
Give up your Jews

And your Gypsies too

Give up your Colleagues
Give up your Neighbours
Give up your Friends

Give up them All
Give up Control
Give up your Soul

We have a Law...To make you Obey
We have a Law...To take you Away
We have a Law...To kill you Today

Law is Might...Wrong is Right
Dark is Light...Blind is Sight

No turning back at the Mississippi Turnpike

Now for Evensong.

Mad Cat Woman.

When a Government Minister makes a speech that includes the line
"The human rights act needs to go" and this is cheered by the crowd.
You don't know if you're listening to a Conservative party conference
or a Nuremberg Rally.

Definition of Racism

" Your culture is inferior to our culture
you must abandon your culture
you must accept and adapt to our culture
or we will persecute you "