The sky is falling! The sky is falling!!!
- I am Cooking: Toasted Cheese and Ham sandwiches
- Books I am Reading: The Tainted - too tired to read
- TV /DVDs I am Watching: L&O Tilty headed man
My mind is going today – can’t remember a thing. Had to drive home twice on my way to school to visit to get the things I forgot. I must write a note to myself more often and stick it on the back door, I haven’t even lost my Buffy Diary.
Well, the decline continues. What is it about the Western world that we, in general, are so easily swayed by fear. It’s not as if there hasn’t been fear in our lives last century, yet we embraced change and moved on. Now all people want is something for themselves- money, promises of wealth, safety at the cost of others’ lives .. it is a sad list. The list should read something like this- caring for the old, the sick, the disabled, the young, those cast out of their homes by war, indigenous people, the disadvantaged. It should be providing health care, shelter, education etc for all regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation....... It should be celebrating differences, fostering community and encouraging co-operation. Australia should not be fighting East Timor for the rights to the oil/gas fields, we should be helping them to become a strong, independent nation and ally. We should not be involved in a religious fundamental war between the USA and the militant Islam groups. We should be strengthening ties in Asia. Our ties with Europe are tenuous at the most, we even have to stand in the Aliens line at UK customs, us! part of the ‘Commonwealth’, in the Aliens line. Just as in Australia, the Bush Administration has won, increased their lead and gained control of the White House and the Congress. I feel like Henny-Penny but with a real reason to feel the sky is falling. It is so disheartening to feel so powerless, know that here, for example, the Howard government didn’t win a majority of the actual votes, but managed to win power in both the upper and lower house.
Tony, Tony, Tony! Tony Abbott and Co are still plugging away making abortion an issue. Do they really think that women have an abortion using the same level of decision they give to the type of tea they will drink, or the main course they will choose?? Of course they don’t. Many women are in an untenable position, they may have no other choice. If women are not allowed control of this aspect of their lives, how can they gain control of any other – their ability to hold down a job, be a reliable and valued employee, have emotional currency in a relationship – have a voice in family, workplace, community and Government? Men are never tarred with the same brush, a man who sleeps around is a good bloke, a stud : a woman is a whore. An older man chasing younger women is distinguished and his power desired : an older woman is seen as a sad joke. Men can easily refuse responsibility for children and often do. They are not the ones whose lives are irrevocably changed. You try asking the man of the house to keep just the bread and milk stocked up for a week. They can’t do it, they can’t even find the milk in the fridge, let alone guess when they might need to buy more.
This is looking like a diatribe against men in general, and it isn’t. It is men like Abbott, Pyne and now Eric Abetz, fervent and old-fashioned Catholics who know a woman’s place is in the home, reproducing many more Catholic babies. We were taught this by the priests at school : a woman’s duty is to marry as soon as she can and to reproduce – that’s it – Oh and do the flowers at church.
Well that’s enough now, I feel my urge to rant sated. If only the washing machine delivery men would come and go so I could go to bed!!!!!.