It begins the weekend and I get a visit from my daughter and granddaughter…always a delight…..my daughter rants about the state government and my granddaughter asks questions…….
This post is sorta continuance of a post I wrote a couple of days ago……
It is not secret that the light of my life is my granddaughter, who is 13 going on 35, she enjoys her ‘puter and classical music and reads constantly and her and I have some interesting conversations….not about hipster crap but rather actual events that she cannot understand and she turns to the old fart(me) to help her understand……
Recently she had watched a report on the refugees that are trapped in another country looking for a home…..her attention was most drawn to the kids that she saw…..so she knew that I wrote a lot and she and I sat down around the outside picnic table and talked about the situation….she had done what any 13 year old would do….she went to the internet to see what was being said……
These are some of the photos that made her ask the questions…..
She was horrified by the tone to some of the stuff she read…..she had read about conditions in the camps and the events that would let some immigrate to other countries……then she saw about the attacks in Europe over the holidays……we talked about those…..we both agree that they were barbaric incidents committed by sick individuals…. and she asked if a few committed the crimes why were all responsible? A damn good question.
She told me about some of the attacks that have been aimed at the refugees and asked why were they not as important as the other crimes…..another damn good question.
Then she showed me a news report I had not seen…..
Witnesses say up to 100 men in masks marched through the center of Stockholm on Friday, assaulting anyone who appeared to be an immigrant, the Local reports. While police aren’t confirming any attacks on migrants, they do say the men were passing out flyers meant to incite attacks, according to the BBC. And the Guardian quotes a police spokesperson, who says the men gathered “with the purpose of attacking refugee children.” The Local reports the flyers warned that “the North African street children who are roaming around” will get the “punishment they deserve.”
The violence appears to be in response to the murder of a young social worker at a center for migrant youths earlier this week, the Local reports. Police say “hooligan gangs for Stockholm football teams” and “far-right groups” are believed to be behind it. A Swedish neo-Nazi group issued a statement claiming responsibility and boasting that it had cleaned up the streets. According to the Guardian, a handful of people were arrested—one for allegedly assaulting a police officer, the others on suspicion of wearing masks in public, causing a disturbance, or possessing knuckledusters—and later released.
She asked why there was no outrage at this report…..she asked if those comments were so how the “norm”?……..once again she knows how to ask damn good questions.
I tried to explain that there are some people that fear the unknown and the refugees are an unknown quantity….and they will find anything they can to make their point and overlook anything that is contrary……her comment was a simple one….”that’s just dumb”!
Could not have said it better.
She said she wanted to help, which I said was an excellent idea, …..she asked where to start…..I told her to go to the websites and see what she felt would be the proper thing to do…..
I also told her to do it because she truly wants to help….not because she wants some sort of recognition…..I told her to leave that kind of thinking for those who are biased and hateful…..never attempt some form of charity for recognition……
What should I have said? Did I miss anything?
As a closing shot of the day………
I would like to leave everyone with a photo of my assistants hard at work……they are Little Man and Baby Girl……
She’ll ask why aren’t the refugees grateful when the children turn into killers for Islam . Obama wants to let thousands in and yet we can’t care for homeless vets or get them attention at VA. Nice priority, eh ?
I am not sure it is so much a question of “If only a few commit crimes then why are ‘all’ held responsible?” I think there is another more subtle answer to that question and I must admit I am struggling to find a way to present it to you right now but maybe you can get the drift of what I am suggesting:
Let’s take a scenario in which a series of brutal murders were committed in public spaces with great loss of life and great destruction of property and each and everyone of those who committed such acts had blonde hair and green eyes.
How long do you think it would be before everyone who had heard about the rampages would begin to feel uncomfortable whenever a person with blonde hair and green eyes walked into the room with them, sat down on the bus seat beside them or lingered in front of the department store window or at the bus stop with them?
Thanx but I will stick with I told her….and again she would like to help….you would think that a Christian country would find that a positive thing….apparently not
It is a tough dilemma and when we are reminded of our Christian values we cannot “turn the other cheek” (look the other way) when people are starving and homeless. But why aren’t the oil rich nations of the Arab world taking care of their fellow Muslims? I think Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have but they must be overwhelmed.
They are …….that is a good question….it is more about trying to preserve the monarchy and they fear that they will be in danger…..chuq
Nice post, chuq; your granddaughter shows more adult behavior & thinking, sans the fear of unknowns, than some of the comments…. It’s ironic to see such fear of imagined scenarios in adults, & even more saddening to see it used to justify bigotry…. I don’t see anything you missed; you merely gave her direction to fulfill her own curiosity…. the correct way to teach an inquiring mind…
gigoid, the dubious
Thanx….she asks great questions and I try to point her in the right direction and let her make her own decisions….chuq
Bob Dylan – A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall – Live at the Gaslight – 1962 https://youtu.be/wNBmn0kgTv4 via @YouTube
Reblogged this on Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News and commented:
When there are no more words – you stand up…
THanx for the re-blog……I appreciate it….chuq
she had done what any 13 year old would do….she went to the internet to see what was being said
Well, there’s your first mistake! Ain’t nothing good on the Web-pipes. Aside from the celebrity obsessed drivel, the Loserbook self-fellatio artists and pedophiles …..there ain’t nothing on the Web-pipes but a bunch of joyfully ignorant, hate filled, chimps spreading utter lies and throwing their feces at everything that moves.
In other words, people being people.
Kind of like the unstoppable force meeting the immoveable object. The sad fact is that the new generation will make the same mistakes our own generation made but the new generation will put their own unique spin on those mistakes.
Yes, but I think this one is making even more mistakes than previous generations, certainly in comparison to the generation of fossils that dominate the population around here. And this generation is so “uniquely spun”, the rotational force could probably catapult them to Pluto…which, now that I think about it, is probably a really good place for them.
I don’t know on which sites you go!
I have learned a lot by reading and researching on the internet. When I answer a post I want to have the background info, the original article etc. I don’t wan’t to resort to impuls answers.
Correct…..
Alas cynicism abounds….
Walk a Straight Path in a Crooked World –
https://books.google.co.uk/books?isbn=1552125106.
I am proud of her for doing her own research and not depending on some to do her thinking for her…..she will make the right decision….chuq
Nice to have such an inquisitive granddaughter. Her heart and mind are in the good place!
Thanx….and yes they are….she will do the right thing….chuq
And that makes you a unicorn! 🙂
But this is an era completely devoid of filters & impulse controls and ruled by propaganda & the “confirmation bias”. Anybody can write any unsubstantiated, hate-filled, bullshit they want, (see: half of what I write) put in on the World-pipes…and often make it look 100% legit! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/30/pbs-hacked-tupac-alive_n_868673.html And that’s what goes on in the “more serious” parts of the World-pipes!
Sure, there’s lots of decent info out there…especially good info on really trivial shit. (ie the Brady Bunch episode of Celebrity Bowling) But it’s the needle in the manure pile. And the good stuff doesn’t remotely represent what people actually do on the Web-pipes. Just ask the NSA. They see it all…but refuse to tell us lowly serfs anything. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/21/us/politics/edward-snowden-at-nsa-sexually-explicit-photos-often-shared.html?_r=0 Only the most naive, Pollyannic, people can’t deny that the overwhelming majority of World-pipes usage is made up of celebrity porn, consumerist porn, actual porn, home-made dick-pics, nasty gossip & social competition, pictures of what people ate for breakfast and surfboarding squirrel videos. In short, it’s a frothy mix of time-wasting drivel and Santorum. The amount of something on the World-pipe is inversely proportional to it’s quality/societal value.
As for what websites I personally visit….After 30 years on the Internet, I’ve seen more than enough. Some things I can’t “unsee”, no matter how much I want to. The thrill is long gone. I’m barely on the damn thing at all anymore. Which is good because my Internet connection costs half as much as mortgage and it downloads only slightly faster than my old dial-up modem.
Actually, this website currently represents half of my entire Internet use…so what does that tell ya? 😉