02/06/2020

We enter the second day of the sixth month of Twenty Twenty and some headlines are without the most frightening that this world has seen from a democratic nation which says it deplores the way Middle Eastern and Asian regimes treat their populations using unnecessary violence to quell freedom of speech and peaceful protesting, well in the last seven days we have seen America turn from a democracy in to a dictatorship ruled by a power hungry individual who has deployed the military to attack its own people.

I cannot believe we live in a world which condones and stands idly by while war breaks out in America. Innocent peaceful protesters are been shot at the minute with rubber bullets and paint pellets, but how long will it be before real bullets are used to quell the peaceful protests as Trump threatens to send in the military meaning he will turn america in to a country that resembles China, North Korea and Russia ultimately making himself the uncrowned king of America. His first act of homeland aggression was to order his secret service and police to clear the streets of protesters with tear gas and force, so he could take an ego trip by walking to the vandalised St. John's church near the whitehouse, a church used by ex-presidents, but never once visited by Trump. To top off his ego trip he stood in front of the church, hand raised holding a bible turned away from the cameras to hide which edition it was. It can be clearly seen that this is a man on the edge if not in the total throws of madness never seen within a presidency ever before, even Nixon didn't go this far over the protesting back in the seventies. Trump is getting scared as more and more police officers start to fight back by walking with or kneeling with protesters in solidarity rather than fight with them 

The Right Rev Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington has openly condemned Trumps actions and has told reporters that as the Bishop she should have been informed of the photo op, but was not even given a courtesy call, informing that they would be clearing the streets with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop. She went on further to tell the reporters that the  president had used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, as well as one of the churches in my diocese, without my permission, as a backdrop for a message which is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus. Finally she said that she didn't want the president speaking for St John’s. and that they dissociate themselves from the messages of this president as we as a clergy hold the teachings of our sacred texts to be so, so grounding to our lives and everything we do, and it is about love of neighbour and sacrificial love and justice not politics. This was backed up by other religious leaders who echoed her comments, one of whom stated and accused the president of using the church and Bible for “partisan political purposes” adding “For the sake of George Floyd, for all who have wrongly suffered, and for the sake of us all, we need leaders to help us to be “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

I could keep on going, but I am only repeating the concerns of the American public themselves, so I will turn my anger off for the second while I see what there is to rant about in dear old Blighty. Well as the lockdown continues to be eased against advice of scientists, new laws are becoming prevalent with the police in England having the power to order people to leave a property if they are breaking the new laws, but do not have powers to forcibly remove them. A big brother style of law is that it's now a crime to stay overnight at someone else's home or to hold gatherings of two or more people indoors or more than six people outdoors meaning raves are out while giving the police the right to fine rule-breakers or arrest them if they do not co-operate. In Wales, people from two different households can meet each other outdoors. Groups of four to six people who are not in the same household can meet outdoors in Northern Ireland while in Scotland members of two different households are already allowed to meet outdoors. We are clearly in the midst of a era where politicians have ultimate power which is under abuse.

As a voting member of the British public I am concerned, but relieved to live here compared to America. I do however have a worry that any individual person that has the power to close down a country or enforce martial law without an oversight could go further. What is happening around the world is scary as freedom of speech is cut, public opinion is no longer openly sought and violence against those individuals trying to get the word in to the universe is increased, as police and military shoot and abuse innocent civilians and reporters under the orders of corrupt unscrupulous politicians who are using the world and their own nations crisis to suppress and control rather than aid and lead. We as a people need to overcome those individuals who are racist, sexist, abusive, homophobic and every other form of oppressive personality that wishes to keep society downtrodden and severely persecuted or brutalised.

Rant you tomorrow!