May 29 2012

R.M.P. Hong Kong 1959

One of my old RMP mates from Hong Kong in 1959 visited me yesterday. Benny – aka Cpl. Bennett – and Dickiebo, somewhat portlier than 1959, I’m afraid!

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May 2 2012

A Taxi Driver

I arrived at the address and honked the horn. After waiting a few minutes I honked again. Since this was going to be my last ride of my shift I thought about just driving away, but instead I put the car in park and walked up to the door and knocked. ‘Just a minute’, answered a frail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor.

After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 90′s stood before me. She was wearing a print dress and a pillbox hat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940′s movie.

By her side was a small nylon suitcase. The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered with sheets.

There were no clocks on the walls, no knickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the corner was a cardboard
 box filled with photos and glassware.

‘Would you carry my bag out to the car?’ she said. I took the suitcase to the cab, and then returned to assist the woman.

She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the curb.

She kept thanking me for my kindness. ‘It’s nothing’, I told her. ‘I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother to be treated.’

‘Oh, you’re such a good boy, she said. When we got in the cab, she gave me an address and then asked, ‘Could you drive
 through downtown?’

‘It’s not the shortest way,’ I answered quickly.

‘Oh, I don’t mind,’ she said. ‘I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were glistening. ‘I don’t have any family left,’ she continued in a soft voice. ’The doctor says I don’t have very long.’ I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.

‘What route would you like me to take?’ I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator.

We drove through the neighbourhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newly-weds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the first hint of sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, ‘I’m tired. Let’s go now’.
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a small convalescent home, with a driveway that passed under a portico.

Two orderlies came out to the cab as soon as we pulled up. They were solicitous and intent, watching her every move.
They must have been expecting her.

I opened the trunk and took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.

‘How much do I owe you?’ She asked, reaching into her purse.

‘Nothing,’ I said

‘You have to make a living,’ she answered.

‘There are other passengers,’ I responded.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

‘You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’

I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light.. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.

I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. 

What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run, or had honked once, then driven away?

On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.

My thanks to Michael Haltman.

May 2 2012

Subject: The Silent Majority

This is our country and its being destroyed.

To David Cameron (Prime Minister) & Ed Milliband (Leader of the Opposition) …

You BOTH Worry me ! ( In fact both of your Political parties worry the hell out of me !!!)
Over the last three years, I find myself becoming more and more fearful of the pair of you, and between you, you are turning this country into a place that I no longer feel at home in, or feel a part of! I watch you in parliament, and no, not just the two of you, but every politician that I see, stand up in parliament sneering at each other, and acting like children !!! (..and if you were my children, I would be ashamed of you all … What an example to set!)
Although you would like us all to believe that you are putting the needs of this country at the forefront, NEITHER of you are doing that, you seem more interested in “one-up-manship “, in scoring off each other, & denigrating each other, to the detriment of this country & its people !!!
It seems to be all about YOU as individuals, and not about what you can DO for this country !
It is fast becoming a place that I do not recognize, as the place I always thought, was the best place in the world to be !!!
But no longer !!!
You are not listening to the people of this country !!!
And here in Great Britain , your counterparts are afflicted with the same disease – is it endemic in all politicians ?
I am watching the deterioration of living standards in this country, (and according to you, on a world stage we are doing better than most countries … REALLY ???) … And yet the gap is widening between the “haves” and the “have-nots” . I see our homeless on the streets, our hospitals under-funded, and understaffed, our health system is an absolute mess and a disgrace … And yet I see multi-millions of dollars being sent off shore, in aid to other countries, before attending to this country’s needs !
I see the “selling off of water rights to foreign interests, WHY…?
Especially when you go to great lengths to tell us that water is a finite resource, & supposedly, we must ALL be careful with how we use it, so that we ensure we have it for the future?
A Carbon Tax,( which you KNOW is just another tax ) which will make NO appreciable difference, to carbon emissions, AT ALL!
A tax, which in spite of all your arguments FOR it, you are doing alone, when other major countries will NOT & DO NOT embrace it, or believe in it All that it will do for this country is put working families and small businesses behind the eight ball, …..what planet are you on, if you think that your few hundred pounds a year, will make even a scrap of difference to the effect of the carbon tax on people? Anyone can see the holes in that argument !!! Do you really think we are that dumb???
Let’s talk about Multiculturalism.
……People have come here from other countries, for a better life, for more years than I have been alive ( I am 76 years old !) ……
Pre & Post war immigrants came for a better life, and settled in and became wonderful contributors to this country, … all have contributed to the rich diversity of this country, and some descendants have even fought FOR this country, and they have become U.K.citizens and were glad to be ……..and they had NO handouts from our Government either, ……they worked hard for everything!, as we did.
I have never before had a problem with all, or any, race of immigrants coming here …
……However , I DO NOW !!!
Please tell me why we have areas in towns and on large estates all over the country , where police do NOT, & will NOT go, for fear of their life ?
Please tell me why we can no longer have religion in schools, for fear of “OFFENDING” someone ? (The latest little gem is that they are not having, or being funded, for “chaplains ” any more , but “Counsellors “?)
Please tell me why religious Christmas observances are no longer allowed in some schools for fear of OFFENDING someone ?
Please tell me HOW Christmas decorations in some stores might OFFEND someone ?
Please tell me why we have to have segregated days in some swimming centres, for fear of “OFFENDING” someone?
Please tell me why we have some RADICAL clerics demanding Sharia Law in this country … when if we were in THEIR country, this would NEVER be allowed ?
Please tell me why our laws need to be changed, so as not to OFFEND someone ?
Please tell me why we are fast becoming a MINORITY voice, in our own country, because of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS ?
Please tell me WHY Britains cannot legally wear a face covering bike helmet into a bank ..and yet it is ok to wear a Burqa which covers the whole face ?
And please tell me WHY, when those people who want asylum here, can wreck our detention centres, and STILL be accepted here ?
What does that say, about just who and what are this government’s priorities ?
The British people that I speak to have genuine concerns about becoming a second class minority in our own country, and the reasons for it, are some of the above, ….. Are you so blind that you cannot see this ?
And no, I am NOT racist!!!..(if I did not like Catholics or Protestants would I be considered racist ?) Of course not !
Why is it, that if we object to what is happening in our country … we are immediately labelled RACIST, in an attempt to shut us up ?
We are fighting Radical Muslims, in Afghanistan & Iraq, are we not? I hear you say, yes but the Muslims we have here are “Not like that” .. well how would we know ? …do we hear ANY of them coming out & speaking AGAINST radicals?? I haven’t …have you???
Islam is not compatible with ANY of the values that we hold here in Britain! …..Are not the experiences of France, and the Netherlands an example of that? Why do you think it would be any different here? We even have a British born “radical “, whose message is that Britain WILL become a Muslim country, under Sharia Law, & that we had “better get used to it “.
Will both of you grow some “Balls “, and start sticking up for this country and its people???
We are the people who put you where you are, and PAY you to look after our interests! … And you are NOT doing that, by any stretch of the imagination!!!
I would appreciate an answer, from both of you, if only to convince me that once again, I am not talking to a brick wall!!!!!
In case it has escaped both of you …I would like to remind you that, in the U.K. Government … is FOR THE PEOPLE, OF THE PEOPLE, & BY THE PEOPLE …
Never forget that……because you sure have up till now!!!

May 1 2012

How Political Police Operate – 3 Days Before An Election!

BURMA – Lock up those who don’t conform!

AUNG SAN SUU KYI

CHINA – Lock ‘em up!

Chen Guangcheng

ENGLAND – Smash down their front door, cuff ‘em, and Lock ‘em up!

In an English country gar-r-den!

Councillor Mike Whitby and wife at their front door

We'll teach you, matey!

Be very afraid!