Freedom

Ride home, ride home.
Leave us all alone with our screaming children,
Leave us all alone with our under staffed hospitals-
which hang the flags of hope.
Leave us all alone with our mud roads and limited
technology.
Ride home, ride home.

I liked that verse,very procative.Good message in this piece Beeme,keep up the good work.

Pinda
Peace
x

Hi' Beeme I love this all well ,done why for along time most in Helmand we must have strong armoured vehicles,and every thing for protection? They are all someone's loved ones. Pray for Peace+ julie

Thank you both for your kind words, always pray for peace (: x

Beeme

Hi Beeme. Good work. The last verse particularly interested me :

"The views of everybody in the war against evil, have become confused. Not one person is really
fighting for a whole good purpose. Yet we hear
both sides of the argument, leave or stay."

I would be interested to see a follow up piece to this one which elaborates on these ideas if you've already written it. ;-)

Thanks Jupiter, I haven't written a follow up piece but the last part of the program that inpsired this is on tonight, see what happens (:

best wishes
Beeme

Congratulations. These things are complicated, I am exceptionally pleased that you do not try to resolve the dichotomy. Your poem is all the better for it.
You do well to steer clear of stating what 'a whole good purpose' might be; your (or my) opinion hardly matters. The British armed forces are out in any case. Here is a question: are they gone because:

a)their mission is accomplished; democracy, infrastructure and security have been established in Basra?
b)The troops released from duty in Basra can be deployed to Helmand in Afghanistan?

'It's all so wrong, can it only get worse.' You need a question mark here.

Regards
Ewan

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh :) My man you got a cherry,a well deserved cherry.
CONGRATULATIONS!

Thanks Ewan, In regards to your question I think it's a bit of both. Much appreciated you spotting the question mark (:

Best wishes
Beeme

haha thankyou pinda ;-)) Im very pleassed (:

Hey Beeme... and the rest will follow Well done mate!

Hi Ewan. If you saw my piece on Opinion I'm sure you know what I'm going to ask... ;-) lol

I'm pretty sure I may not be understanding what you are saying again but I might as well ask the questions for clarity's sake.

"You do well to steer clear of stating what 'a whole good purpose' might be; your (or my) opinion hardly matters."

Is it not essential for all of us who have no desire to live in dictatorships to have an opinion and to speak out when necessary?
And is it not reasonable to say that our collective opinion hardly matters only because so few do so?

If we give away our power then are we really in a position to complain when those in control perform atrocities in our name? Surely change only ever comes about when enough good people speak out?

I am reminded of the often quoted (and variously translated) Pastor Niemöller poem describing the dangers of political apathy:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a communist ....
...
...
Then they came for me, and there was no-one left, to speak out for me

Hi jupiter, thanks mate (:

((-;

Jupiter I understand what your saying and it's very true, however we can cosider the fact the Ewan has done spying duites in the RAF and probably has an opinion however it's true, the troops are out there now.

Anyway thanks for support (:

Much appreciated Beeme ((-;

And what happened to Niemoller? If you had read a little more of what I do write, you would probably realise that I truly believe in freedom of speech and democracy, that doesn't mean that they will always win out.

Writing a poem saying how terrible it all is will not achieve much, however good the poem is. Writing to your MP (falls over laughing) might achieve even less.
Demonstrating in front of Whitehall or Westminster will get you a headache or worse. In the last ten years, we have given up so many of our own rights and liberties that I find it exasperating that we think we can protect those of citizens of other nations.

We could pack a bag and go, see what we could do, I suppose. We'd have a long wait at Immigration when/if we got back.

Yep, and the NSDAP was voted in democratically. So a majority not only did not speak out, they tacitly condoned it. Perhaps there should have been an invasion for "Regime Change" purposes in 1933? Don't imagine that any sympathy for the plight of the Jews had much to do with Allied prosecution of the war. Churchill himself is reputed to have decided to keep the extent of what was going on from the great British Public.

Yes, the Nazi regime was morally and ethically odious; are you favouring civil action to overthrow foreign governments? Why not start closer to home?

Sorry mate our postings are crossing.

Niemoller was held in concentration camps until release in 1945 by the Allies, however that's the point isn't it?
Insufficient people spoke out so they were able to commit the atrocities that they did.

Ok. I see that I was misunderstanding you. I thought I must be ;-)

As it seems to be a bit of a quote day I think this one illustrates perfectly what I was trying to say :

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke

Can't wait to see your reply - bound to be hilarious ;-D lol

I admire the sentiment, I just don't think it works. Is it a question of degree? What's going to happen in Teheran? Lots of protest, noises from Obama and the 'free' world. What else? A partial recount?

I think Burke would have encouraged many people to try out for 'Britain's Got Talent'.

I don't believe that a change of Government will bring change in the UK. I saw Blair ride in and no change. The problem lies with the invisibles - hey shit this is getting a bit deep and dangerous - time to change tack.
I am not professing to have a fully thought out quality masterplan or blueprint for utopia, or anywhere near, however I do believe it is definitely not right for people to be finessed into giving up their belief in the power of their own and of the collective voice. Plus I meet so many who look no further than to the next big mac & chips then whinge about x & y - I want to stick a rocket up their asses and light the touch paper. ;-)

"I think Burke would have encouraged many people to try out for 'Britain's Got Talent'"

You're probably right ha! ha! lol - though not intentionally I'm sure ;-)

You are right the whole interwoven system is enormous and way beyond my ability to hold in my brain at any one time let alone be able to solve however I look at it in the same way I used to look at complex software systems and break it down into manageable chunks.

As I see it if every caring person made a difference each day the weight of those differences could move mountains. I have seen some lovely quotes about drops and ripples and the weight of a snowlake etc which illustrate the point but can't lay my hands on one right now. ;-)

Great piece Beeme, and as my son is set to go out there I am feeling quite raw about it all. So I won't be getting into a discussion about it. But I think you've expressed the sentiments very well and left it open enough for the thought process to kick in. Well done on the cherry too! sarah x

Thanks sarah, best wishes to your son, I'm hoping one day to serve as a soldier or missionary so this is an iteresting topic for me. (: x

I really like the repetition - gives this real force - all the best for the comp Beeme. :-)