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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Bullying!


Bullying is criminal


This is a very serious matter that has always been understated, and has always been with us. Mainly it is thought of as a young person’s problem and it tends to be fobbed off as "kids will be kids." Lately there has been a rash of teenage suicides due to bullying, therefore it can no longer be ignored.

I recently viewed a programme on Larry King Live that focused on the bullying syndrome. Larry King asked the question: Why do people bully, and what do they get out of it? The answer from his panel was that nobody knew the answer.

Fundamentally, when one person puts another person down it is done for the purpose of enlarging his own image of himself in his own mind. That seems to be the classic definition of racism, prejudice, and discrimination, no matter who is victim and who is perpetrator. In Nazi Germany the Jews were the ones who were the underdog and they paid a terrible cost that allowed the Nazis to believe that they were superior to everybody else. History has certainly confirmed that those “superior” people were only so in terms of the evil that they did.

Bullying in schools has been always a part of the society and it was never funny. It is both unacceptable and ingrained as it is a part of human nature. One step at a time ,bullying, in its various forms are under constant attack and we are seeing success in one sector followed by a rise in unsocial activity in another.

Once women in America could not own land nor vote, but that prejudice was swept away and discrimination against blacks rose to a national level. Grown men were referred to as boys, but now, even if the child is a boy you take your life in your hands if you call him that. As blacks continue on the journey to full respect another group is targeted, and so forth and so on.

This is even practised by countries that went around the world colonizing other nations. Britain once boasted that the sun never set on its colonies. How a country could think that there was anything right with invading another person’s country for the purpose of simply calling it their own completely escapes me.

The aggressor, or bully is never right! This is borne out by the fact that intelligent people will almost always distance themselves from “those people.” In the United States white people didn’t want to be associated with white power supremacists, calling them Rednecks, white trash, and trailer trash. Even within the oppressed groups discrimination is practised against one another. Light skinned blacks are seen to be of more value than a midnight-blue coloured person.

Clearly, at the base of it all is stupidity. The solution is always education. Have I ever suffered with any stupid conceptions about other people? Yes I have. Do I still have any issues to be resolved? Yes I do. At least I have the mechanisms in place to help me through my problems.

Fundamentally, the answer is the same in every case. Whether it is a nationality, a group, a political ideology, sexual orientation, a religion, etc, it is a matter of live and let live. The line is drawn when people start to hurt others to establish their own points of view. That is an intolerable state of affairs that is beyond acceptance. Bullying of any kind falls under this heading and we must appeal to those who are bullies to stop the practise……..or else!


Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Military Family


The Military Family

War, and the military family are topics that have come to the fore in my mind lately. These are such huge subjects they are like standing in front of massive mountains wondering how to climb them. I think I prefer to deal with the human aspect first, the military family.

Who and what is a soldier?
A soldier is a combatant who is on the front line between freedom to live life according to the philosophy of a particular country, and those who would seek to take away those freedoms.

The foregoing description includes both men and women who place themselves in harm’s way, and they are routinely injured, sometimes for life, and they are killed in ever growing numbers. Sometimes harm comes through accidents while not on the arena of battle, but in training or maintenance. The end result is the same, another life lost and another family greatly affected.

War is becoming ever more sophisticated with some fighting being done by soldiers in one country sending over drones to another country to kill. The casualties will be one sided, so if you are on the side with the drones this is good news. The important point is that a soldier’s life is no less valuable than that of a civilian, but that life is subject to far greater peril.

I have been close to a mother whose son was at war in Afghanistan, and every time the telephone rang she would jump. The toll that takes on the folks back home is terrible, and it really is unfair that the general public go about our business getting only soundbites as to what is really going on along the front line. After all, it is being done for our benefit.

One part of that whole terrible drama that receives practically no coverage at all is the family that waits back home. Why a woman would agree to marry a soldier about to be shipped overseas is hard to fathom. I’m very glad that they do because it offers the combatant a scintilla of a real life, but it is always done in the full knowledge that he may not return alive.

The couple frequently will try for pregnancy so that a part of him will live on should he lose his life. We also have mothers going into active war zones and they lose their lives as well, and that for the children they leave behind must be even more difficult to accept.

The military family is a very special unit that outsiders simply cannot understand. Their contribution to the freedom of their nation is as great as that of the combat member who serves in war.

I once was close to a Navy family consisting of a young wife and two children. Her husband, my very good friend asked me to be her best friend while he was away. She treated me as her confidant and she told me bluntly of her pain of not knowing; of expecting any minute of a visit from the Navy with bad news; of her loneliness. She would cry for long periods of time after the children were put to bed and I would just hold her. She would tell me that she wanted sex with her husband so badly it ached, but I couldn’t touch her.

Throughout all those times the thought of she and I having sex never even entered either her mind, nor mine. When he asked me to be her best friend I think that he had such trust in me, or at least in her, that it never even entered his mind that we would betray him. It was a matter of such great moral importance, and the unspoken rule was expected to be upheld; that no spouse with an iota of decency and honour would betray a serving soldier while life was at stake for one’s own sexual gratification. To do so would be considered as treason. On the other hand, if the combatant had an opportunity for sex they would not be blamed for taking it as it might be the last in their life.

When he came home for rest and relaxation she would be so happy to see him, but then her happiness would give way to depression because the end of his leave was in sight and she had to prepare to go through the same thing all over again. Such a rollercoaster experience is really too much for humans to endure. This is all part of the “war is hell” aspect.

Life for the military family is one of service in support of the country, and they deserve the respect and admiration of the nation. Unfortunately the families do not receive medals for enduring, but they should.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Michael Jackson Autopsy Report


The Michael Jackson Autopsy Report

The United States is a country that believes in the freedom of information, when it suits it, but sometimes I think that freedom is carried way too far. If you are interested in The Michael Jackson Autopsy Report, all that you have to do is Google it, and you will get all twenty-three pages in detail.

What possible need do we, members of the general public have to this information? We will learn that he died as a partial result of propofol, a powerful drug that is usually used in producing general anaesthesia under very controlled circumstances. It is not for use in the case of simple insomnia. We will learn that anyway when the trial of the attending doctor is held. We already know that something went horribly wrong that led to his death. We also learn that Michael was practically bald, but we kind of guessed that he was wearing a wig for some reason.

We also learn that he was uncircumcised, presumably something that most people will find earth shattering. Or will they? Most importantly, we learn that Michael Jackson was suffering from the disease of Vitiligo that leads to the loss of skin pigmentation. He told us that himself but we didn’t want to believe it. Instead we wanted to believe that he hated being black, and so he took steps to bleach himself.

Few of the media reporting on this fact gave it any prominence, nor did they give him any redemption.

It seems to me that releasing this record is all about pandering to the public’s idle curiosity. We learn the above noted facts, and we shrug our shoulders and go about our business. It means nothing to us, except that the man’s privacy is further violated when he is in no condition to do anything about it. This seems all wrong to me. I feel that the autopsy report is none of the public’s damn business.

What does mean something to me is the whole process of an autopsy. I understand that no one can sit through one of these procedures for the first time as a witness without feeling very sick, throwing up or fainting, or all of the above. I suppose for the people who perform the procedures it must become routine, but the steps are very graphic.

The professionals who prepare our meat undertake similar processes in cutting through skin and bone and sorting the parts of what was once a living creature, but we are talking about a person who was once an energetic and talented individual. However, for the purposes of the autopsy all that must be set aside and the subject is treated as simply a body that is there to be examined in depth.

It is disturbing for me to picture in my mind’s eye any dead person having the top of his skull taken off and his brain lifted out and placed in a bowl. Then we see a Y cut being made on the chest area extending all the way down to the genitals. One by one all our working parts are disassembled and taken out of our body to be thoroughly examined and weighed. Perhaps they will be placed back in the body cavity to be buried, or they may simply be taken off to be burned in the furnace. I know that the autopsy can be a very necessary step, but dignified it is not.

After we have lived our lives to the full, and the end comes the least we can hope for is death with dignity. That also pertains to the “after death” part as well.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael

Sunday, November 7, 2010

The American Mid-term Elections


The American Mid-term Elections- Time for more change.

The American voters have spoken, and the message they have sent to Washington is not pleasing to President Obama. They have said that the government needs to do a far better job in their interests, in particular the issue to be focused on is jobs, jobs, and jobs.

Like many people I sat fascinated by the President’s commencement speech, and I was equally fascinated by former President Bush’s demeanour as he too listened to Mr. Obama slam him for his failures. It occurred to me at the time that the expression on his face was one of “Mr. Obama, be careful what you wish for.” I also thought that the task that President Obama was letting himself in for was impossible.

The American system of capitalism was broken. It had been an experiment in the same sense that Communism was an experiment, and that failed. I believe that what we have seen is the failure of the capitalist system as we know it. No one, apparently other than me, is saying so, but what else shall we say about it. The system collapsed under its own weight, and the way out that is being tried, is to do more of the same.

Let me say right now that I don’t have a better idea.

The Republican Party of the United States are suggesting that they have the answers, but we have to remember that they were in power when much of the slow descent into the hell that the system is in now, took place. There are the usual talking heads that give their opinions of what needs to be done, but they are far short on details.

Nobody knows anything! What worked before will probably not work now.

The system has broken down before, of course. There have been stock market crashes and bank failures and large scale unemployment, but the country has always bounced back, and it will bounce back from this calamity, but I think the return to a more normal economy will take longer, because the problem is so much more ingrained.

This is the stuff that is better dealt with in book form, a very large book, but as succinctly as I can put it, we seem to have over-produced goods far in excess of what the market can absorb, and as a consequence companies have come to realise that it was no longer making sense to continue with production of things that people did not want, or could not afford at this time.

Car manufacturers need to have three shifts only if demand requires it. The era of building big ships is a thing of the past; construction as an employer has less need for employees, and modern technology makes building homes and offices a process that is too quick. When buildings were constructed by hand the process took longer, and consequently people were employed for longer periods.

We live in a world of cutting edge technology that allows for things to be done quicker and cheaper, that also need much less staff. Some industries that were once mega-employers of men can now produce their product using a mere fraction from their all-time payroll highs. Jobs! The country needs to produce jobs.

How astute is President Obama? Did he know on Commencement Day that putting people back to work would be Job Number One? I’m convinced that he did. Did he know that he would not be able to put people to work in the professions to which they were accustomed in only two years? Yes, I’m sure he did. So, why did he spend his political capital when he barely had the votes to focus on health care? Because, everything else is so touch and go that he took the bull by its horns and did something that no other president could have, and has given the American society a reasonably decent chance at dignified care, especially where there was nothing before. That will be his legacy.

Does President Obama see himself as a one-term president? Probably not, because he really is doing his best, and he does have the respect of most people, but it could happen.

So, now that the Republican Party have control of The House of Representatives, what will happen? President Obama will propose and they will say no! They will say, be reasonable, do it our way. On the other hand, the Republican House will have to find cooperation with the Democratic Senate.

There are many people that say that Mr. Obama is finished, and might just as well put his feet up for the next two years because he will not be able to get anything done. They are also saying that come the presidential elections in 2012 he will be voted out, but that is a very long time from now.

The thing about President Obama is that when people say No! He can’t; he has a way of answering “Oh Yes We Can!

Stay tuned.

Copyright © 2010 Eugene Carmichael