of autumn, pensive moods and hope

Beautiful fall day today and I worked outside a lot. Around noon I got on the net for a while and read some news on gay.com newsheadlines. Two stories hit hard. The first about a 15 year old French boy who was raped in Dubai UAE. There is no such thing as male rape in the UAE law so the boy was told by the police not to report it and not to make problems. He was then accused of being gay and threatened with jail time. Turns out one of his assailents was known to the police and known to be HIV+. The boy was not told this and only after the French government got involved did the boy find out he had been exposed to HIV. The UAE remains uncaring. The second, even sadder, was that another gay boy has been sentenced to death in Iran. As I read down the story it mentioned the earlier hanging of the two gay kids and at the end of the story was a photo of one of the boys hanging, taken from behind him, it showed him from the shoulders down. He was barefoot and his feet hung limp... lifeless... and though I knew of the story and had seen other pictres of the boys, still alive with the noose around their necks, something about this photo saddened me deep into my soul. What kind of monsters could murder a kid for loving his friend? Murder and claim it was pleasing to Allah? What kind of stinking filth could place a rope around a kids neck, a living warm boy whose only "crime" was to be born? Then I read another headline about the phelps family and their diseased appearance at Matthew Shepards funeral.
I went back out and found the day darker by far though the sun remained clear and bright. I pondered my own existence, wished I could have saved any of those boys, thought of how helpless we each are in the face of such mindless hate. Questioned the value of a world full of so many kinds of mindless acts of violence to others humans, gay or straight. Felt my mood slip in to melancoly. I was nearly phyically ill, near also, to tears of sorrow and rage.
About 4 my 14 year old came home from school. Alive, bright, glowing with the vitality that a happy kid has. He needed food! Now! He needed help with homework, Poems, had to write some, poems are stupid. Wheres his brother, what are we gonna do this weekend. When are we going back to the Jungle?
He's from the Amazon in Peru,a place full of life. I've known him all his life and adopted him 3 years ago. I cannot save those murdered boys. I can do little to change the world but I can do poems with Danny. And so we do, laying on the bed, writing and talking, him wiggling, twitching, scratching...full of life. He's down in his room now sleeping as I type this. I'll think about him as I go to sleep tonight, Danny, the dead boys who are sleeping forever and those of you who read this.
Autumn, for an old man, sometimes leads to pensive moods. Thank God for the young who give hope to the old. And if you read this, thank you for indulging my rambling as I move into my own Autumn. Steve

 

thats extremely deep, but agreeably sad.

 

echo the sentiment Steve. People are cruel and they can do anything.

 

Theoden from "The Two Towers", Lord of the rings, "What can men do against such reckless hate?"

Humans are cruel beings and always fearfull of what they don't understand and yeild to authority and what they are told and what is, "pleasing to Allah", amongst other things.

Its terribly tragic, I saw the clip in you tube and was filled with emotion, its just so fundamentally wrong on every level.

 

Thank you, guys, for reading and responding. At times I fight to retain hope for humanity, especially in light of the mind-numbing hatred spewed out by religion. What tragic irony that the "Salvation of Man" seems to be the most likely tool in the destruction of mankind.

To any of you who read this, What do you do to maintain hope? How can we as individuals respond to the insane, blind hate that seems to drive religions...YES, YES, I know that not all religious people are hate filled. However the institution of religion as a whole certainly appears to be the root of much of the worlds hate.

I'm an old man, I wanna hear from those of you who are inheriting this world as well as those of you who are older. To collectively ignore the reality around us is to paint a bullseye on our own ass's. To ignore it is to watch our friends and lovers fall victim to this plague.

 

I do believe there is hope for humanity, but it won't come from our generation, I'm 51, but from the kids that are under 20. they are growing up in a world far far different from the one we did. they have a different view on the world, ours is American-centric, I believe they'll see it world-centirc. I also see they'll realize that religion shouldn't be so rigid, inflexable and hatefilled.

I do apologize to the young kids for inheriting a fucked up world, one which we, the over 45's, made. But I have faith in these kids that they'll make the most of it and turn things around.

ahh hell, I probably just have my head up my ass.

 

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no matter how much the world changes or unifies there will always be prejudice in one from or another , but the only way to change this is to open the minds of the next generation my generation


as always time changes the populations views and hopfuly this time brings about enlightenment rather than ignorance

 

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yeah I guess there is no future.

then why don't we settle all the family business in one fell swoop. Amend the constitution and elect bush as emperor. let him build up our strategic nuclear weapons, not the kiloton jobbers, I talking the multi-megaton city busters. start with the UAE and nuke our way around the Persian gulf taking out everything, even the Saudi oil fields. Pakistan, the Idoneasian islands, North Korea, China, Russia, ... everyone, any place where Islamic terrorist might be.

we have no future, right ? so whats the point ? so why not take all of our foes out ?


of course I am being facetious, but shit you have to believe in a future to have one. I do believe that the next two generations will be cleaning up the mess the bush generation made and they will make the world a better place.

 

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Fuck both Iran and the UAE. As a matter of fact, fuck all those Middle Eastern countries. Except Israel.

I remember hearing both these stories a while ago, but their memory was not erased. I really hope that French boy didn't actually contract HIV. Does anyone know?

As for the UAE, remember, these are the fuckers we almost sold our goddamn ports to. As this story shows, it is not in fact in any way a progressive country. (unless, of course, it comes in time that its economic liberalism gives rise to social liberalism. Though I'm not holding my breath.)

 

I checked the WWW.boycottdubai.com website that was set up by the boy's mom. She closed it down in Jan/08 saying she felt that justice had been as set up in the UAE. The 2 adults got the maximum of 15 yreas each. It sounds like the UAE is planning on setting up a rape victim protection plan also. Since she dropped her civil suits against the UAE I suspect that some under the table stuff maybe happened.Money? Promises of some kind? No word about the boys HIV status and they may still have to wait to see if the virus shows up in the next few months.

The UAE is a country of economic vultures, with less constraints in its government than the USA has. I suspect they will continue to do as they please unless it costs them economically.

Iran and the cretin that passes as a leader are vile beyond my belief. I think I could as easily understand an alien from another solar system as I could the hate-filled puss bags in Iran.

I do have hope for the future improving, the commnication opened up by the internet may very well be the biggest social change agent ever devised by mankind. Look at how many diverse people are communicating here...never before has humanity had such an opportuniy/ability so share ideas and feelings. There is great power in that. Beyond that, on a personal level I am working with a number of young people, gay/straight and all flavors in between and beyond. Some of this is through the net, some in person. Others are doing the same. Why not have hope? Beats hell out of being a permanent downer.











Aesthete]Fuck both Iran and the UAE. As a matter of fact, fuck all those Middle Eastern countries. Except Israel.

I remember hearing both these stories a while ago, but their memory was not erased. I really hope that French boy didn't actually contract HIV. Does anyone know?

As for the UAE, remember, these are the fuckers we almost sold our goddamn ports to. As this story shows, it is not in fact in any way a progressive country. (unless, of course, it comes in time that its economic liberalism gives rise to social liberalism. Though I'm not holding my breath.)[/QUOTE]

 

man... I want to hug someone now. these were unbelievably cruel and hateful acts. yarapario... you must be an excellent, loving and nourishing father. danny is lucky to have you.

peace

 

Thank You Oilymoily, And I am lucky to have Danny, as any of us are lucky to have someone to care for, whether friend, lover, neighbor, or child. Seems to me the healthier, happier people are those who share their lives with others in some caring relationship.