A friend who has known me for a decade says he prefers it when I write when angry. I agree that when I am angry, I write from a place that is otherwise unreachable. A door opens and there we see the emotions unleashed: seething, passionate and erupting like Vesuvius.
I am calmer in some ways, these days, about certain things. But there are some things that make me angrier by the day. Especially when almost each day brings news of a new stabbing in London. I wait for it on the news, and sure enough it comes. I am in danger of becoming blasé. Well, not really, but it's getting bloody ridiculous.
The statistics show (and this is from a friend who is a television crime reporter) that violent crime in the capital is falling but that the ages of those involved have dropped.
Why?
Is it because they are deprived?
Is it because they have no opportunities in life?
Is it because they have no parents who care?
Is it because they have no role models?
Is it because they are victims of prejudice?
Or is it because we have too many people who use the points above as an excuse? This is not a fucking ghetto. The problem is these kids have no boundaries – thanks to those who get their limp hands out and stroke the heads of those who are embroiled in such crime and support the provision of Playstations in prison. Of course there are problems (a la the points I have made) but how dare the saps of this country/city declare that all those who somehow fall into these categories are some kind of underclass doomed to live lives devoid of any humanity? There we go, little hard-done-by boy [who happens to live in one of the richest countries of the world]... have an ASBO and let's talk about it later; do it again and we'll have to take away half the DVDs we gave you to compensate for your tough life.
One of the worst things that you can deprive a human being of is boundaries, because when you do that, you rip away any sense of belonging. And that does not freedom make. These kids don't know whether they are coming or going. They don't know where they come from or could go to, because the waters are muddied by those with the slimy, limp hands, whose favourite past time is to make punishments enticing or simply irrelevant.
I was frustrated with the parents of one murdered schoolboy who said they didn't think anger was the way forward, that they would forgive, and that it was for all of us to ask why the murderer put a knife in their innocent son's heart. Now, this may be the way that some people with religious beliefs deal with grief but why not 'an eye for an eye' instead of 'turn the other cheek'? Jesus was hardly a passive man. Whatever you think, he stood up for what he believed was right and made clear what he thought was wrong! (I am not religious BTW.)
What might have made a difference would have been (in my opinion) the parents condemning the families and peers of those responsible, who live their lives like non-humans. I would have loved to have seen passion, anger, fury and raw emotion to call for change, rather than passivity. OK, so each to their own. But how can people say: 'Oh well, they had a bad start in life' while their own child
is lowered into the ground? I don't understand.
Well said! This would make a good entry in the comments/opinions/editorial section of The Times.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Beth – I do get really hot under the collar about this issue. So frustrating to listen to all the platitudes while nothing changes...
ReplyDeleteMD,
ReplyDeleteYes, indignation is often the path to truth, I find. One need look no further than my humble blog for evidence of my enthusiasm for this approach. Thanks for your recent vist, by the way.
M & G
They had a "youth" on Radio 5 the other week sort of justifying knife crime, drug dealing etc, because kids are leaving school without GCSEs and "don't have any hope of getting jobs".
ReplyDeleteI was furious. Firstly, whose fault is it that they are leaving school without qualifications? Largely it is their own fault. These are not people who have just come to the country who don't speak the language, so can't blame that.
Secondly, I'm from an area where lots of men lost their jobs in mines and shipyards in the 80s and could be said to not have much hope of getting another job, and whilst it tore apart communities, they didn't use it as an excuse to turn to killing.
Too many people think that the world owes them something and that someone else is always to blame for their situation.
Hi M & G
ReplyDeleteAh, yes. See, it reassures me when I read posts like yours. I know I probably offend some with my comments but I'll risk that than live like a naive idiot while the world crumbles as we hold hands...
MD
Hi Sanddancer,
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I was thinking about just that and I think I know where you are from, lass. What you say is spot on. People do think they are hard done by and that they have been deprived, which I find deeply repulsive and sad.
So many people overcome so much and do so without whining. But all we hear about is the 'poor me' brigade a la the 'youth' who blames everyone else for his academic failure!
Mell