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(aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2351 by Angharad Copyright© 2014 Angharad
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I was quite irritable when I got to the school, catching the girl and then having the second contretemps did little to improve my mood.
“We’re going to have a quiz, Mummy?”
“Yes, I know sweetheart.” I can’t honestly say I wanted to discuss something which won’t happen for another month or so.
“How do you know?” asked Trish.
“Sister Maria told me about it this morning.”
“Oh—what for?”
“Why is that important?”
“Just wanted to know.”
“She asked if you girls could be included in the competition.”
“Why ask me, I don’t know nuffin,” said Danielle reminding me she was with us.
“You know lots about sport—well football an’ F1.”
“Mummy knows evweefing,” was Mima’s opinion.
“Compared to you she does,” was Trish’s riposte.
“That’s enough, Trish, it won’t happen for a month or so, therefore you’ll have to wait a bit yet.”
“I’m gonna mug up on facts,” stated Trish.
“That’s fine if you know which areas to research,” I tried to stop her wasting her time.
“Nah, I’ll just learn everything—be as clever as you then, Mummy,” she said poking fun at Meems indirectly, which the latter failed to see. Sometimes Trish can be quite cruel to those who are younger or more ignorant of something than she is which is doubly unfortunate. First, it might make her feel superior but makes her no friends and those who really are superior never have to show off. Second, Meems isn’t as daft as Trish makes out, but her interests and skills lie in different areas and directions. Trish is cleverer but that doesn’t make her superior.
“No one can know everything,” was Livvie’s contribution which sounded very logical to me, “’Cept God of course, He does know everything.” Bang went the logic. Even in mystical terms, at least in a Qabbalistic model, the three veils of negative existence are beyond the knowledge of God. So the all seeing, all knowing divinity only exists in the minds of kids and the uneducated—I include fundies in the latter. Education broadens your mind, fundamentalism shrinks it assuming it ever grew in the first place.
We finally got home and after giving them a drink and a biscuit sent them off to change and do their homework. I came across an article on the Guardian website which nearly had me in tears about transgender prostitutes in a poor area of Queens in New York. Oh boy, have I been lucky by comparison. Then flicking through the television section, I discovered a documentary on Channel four about a group of gay and transgender people who are so abused they live in a drain in Kingston, Jamaica.*
What is wrong with the world? Why do the majority have to impose their will upon minorities just to show who’s in charge, when for most of them, the existence of the minorities is a point of ignorance. Why can’t we all just live in peace and harmony, or is that too much to expect from the naked apes that run this world? When are people going to realise we can achieve almost anything when we cooperate and nothing when we don’t—except long casualty lists.
Sometimes the stupidity of human beings makes me want to cry, other times it almost wishes some epidemic would thin us out dramatically, because all we do is spend our time destroying things, including each other. How anyone can consider us as spiritual beings defeats me, we’re nasty, selfish and aggressively greedy apes with technology.
With the intolerance shown in the article and what I expected to see in the television programme, together with the trouble with the botany student earlier on, I almost felt like going to bed and staying there. Of course I couldn’t. I’m a mother with millions of babies—uh no that’s a lobster, but you get my drift—enough children to lose count, so I have responsibilities and duties.
Stella brought me a cup of tea. “When you hide away, there’s something bugging you—wanna talk?”
I showed her the Guardian article and the television guide, then told her about catching a cheat. She understood why I didn’t want to talk to most people.
“You have to believe things are getting better, Cathy.”
“Here they are, but I despair for people in the States.”
“Americans seem to think differently—if you’re poor you haven’t worked hard enough, so serve you right.”
“I think that’s a little simplistic, Stella, but what do we know about the realities of life for so many people?”
“I don’t know, we’ve both met with discrimination because we’re women, and they make up half the world. You’ve also been abused for being a different woman to some. It happens even in leafy Lincoln or lovely Lancaster. That’s people for you.”
“Now you can see why I prefer dormice.”
“I’ll bet they inhabit a world of dubious politics, adultery and megalomaniacs.”
“They do, but all of those are humans.”
“Speak for yourself,” she said folding her arms. I shrugged, thanked for the tea and drank it.
“We’re so lucky to live in the UK, aren’t we?” I suggested.
“Yep, best climate in the world.”
“You what?” I gasped and laughed.
“Well it is today.”
“Yeah, apparently they’ve got awful flooding in Bosnia and parts of Eastern Europe.”
“They in the European Community?”
“Dunno, but we need to count our blessings.”
“That’s what Simon was totalling up the other day.”
“Uh no, Stella, that was his millions and how much of it you and I have spent for him.”
“How dare he?”
“It is his money.”
“So?”
Sometimes I wonder if I understand the working girls of Queens more than I do my sister in law.
“You going to watch this programme on Friday?” she asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
“Living in a drain—it sounds like that sketch from Monty Python about living in a hole in the road or a shoe box.”
“Yeah, that was ironic comedy, this is real.”
“I know that.”
“I remember reading an article once before about gays and lesbians being murdered and abused in Jamaica. They reckon part of it is the legacy of the British Empire, and its inherent homophobia.”
“That was seventy years ago, Cathy, has time stood still since then? C’mon, girl, if the Tories can legalise gay marriage, things have really changed—here at least, so things will there eventually.”
“Yeah, I suppose so but how many have to suffer or die until that happens?”
“That, dear sister, is the unknown which defines the speed of progress, now what time is dinner?”
*Unreported World 7.35pm Friday 23rd May, Channel Four.
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Comments
Here in the...
Here in the states, things are mixed. Seems like there's as many steps backward as well as forward at times. In many ways, there's progress. But, what progress there is is VERY mixed. If you're privileged enough to be Caucasian from middle class to upper class (financially) and educated (and live in the right states / work for the right employer, and there's more and more of them every year) then, AND pass, things ARE generally better than they were 10-20 years ago. However, if you don't fit those demographics it's MUCH more hit/miss (sadly at times much more hit - as in violence).
Talk about an LGBT community are confused as well... The "T" part is fragmented like crazy. (There's even at least a half dozen DIFFERENT groups that think/claim to speak for trans Americans who have / want to serve in the US Military - yes, being trans is still grounds for dishonorable discharge/court martial.)
But, for the most part, things ARE better for more and more.
That quiz/competition... Challenging. I wonder how things turn out there.
Annette
Read an article today about "consequences" of same sex
marriage in the US. Claimed that in some state the catholic charities organization "had to" stop assisting adoptions because they couldn't control whether a child was adopted by a same sex couple. Called that a consequence of same sex marriage being legal. BULL SH!&&! The "charity" CHOSE to stop doing adoptions because of their own prejudices and bigotry. Calling it a consequence makes it sound like there was some external cause. The issue was the organization not legalization of same sex marriage. Makes me so angry when these organizations try to push their superstitions on everyone else and consider you less than them if you don't share their superstitions.
Done venting. Sorry.
Been there Woody.
Been there Woody, bought the Tee-shirt, burned the jock-strap savoured the bra. I think the solution is to just keep plugging; trouble is it makes one want to vent and rant.
The Jesuits say, 'Give us the child, you can have the man'.
Yeah, well they did for this child so by their own sick perverted mores they got a lifetime enemy!
Religion is the curse of ignorance.
It's not just...
It's not just adoptions. It's many other social services that the Roman Catholic church in America have threatened (and actually carried through in some cases) to eliminate... They include child care centers and food pantries, shelters, etc.
The Salvation Army (SA) has a worse history - at least one trans woman was denied a bed (on the woman's side) since as far as THEY were concerned she was a man, and when she refused to sleep on the men's side - she ended up on the streets and died of exposure. Despite the national organization CLAIMING they are more open, similar stories (with less severe endings) continue to happen depending on who the senior person is at a given site. While this isn't "threatening to close" it is related. And I believe that some local SA leaders have threatened this.
The other extreme is places like Texas that make laws that preclude organizations like Planned Parenthood from operating because some don't believe that anyone should have the option of a safe abortion. (It's against their religion, so nobody can do this.)
We have a very mixed (and in some ways mixed up) society here.
Annette
It would be nice
if more attention was paid to minorities, The world would be a much nicer place to be, Sadly its not likely to happen... Too many vested interests in the status quo, Add to that the lack of any diversity training and you have a situation thats unlikely to change in our lifetimes, We can hope future generations will be better informed that its okay to be seen as different from the perceived norm, Maybe they will, We can but dream, But the reality is if we don't start now with education in Schools then a dream is all it will remain..
Kirri