I was reading the other day there about Bruce Willis signing up for the new Oliver Stone movie which is based on the real life My Lai Massacre that took place in Vietnam in 1968. After hearing about this, I thought i'd go off and find out a bit more about the My Lai Massacre.
In short, it doesn't make nice reading or viewing for that matter. In total between 350 and 500 civilians, mostly women and children were cut down by US soldiers. Eye witness reports from the time said that as locals bowed to welcome their guests they were beaten with rifle butts, women were raped and children were shot as they huddled for shelter. To read more by all means have a look through this further information on the My Lai Massacre...
It's a pretty horrifying story if you take the time to read through it but for me I think the main lesson is that when we think of massacres in this day in age, we tend to think of Darfur, Rwanda or Cambodia's killing fields. Although it wasn't on the same scale, reading this breaks the myth that these acts were only carried out by rougue communist states, right wing fascists or groups intent on acts of ethnic cleansing. Unfortunately if any man is placed in a particular set of circumstances they seem to be capable of these kind of attrocities whether they are christian, jew, muslim, communist or democrat. All too often we in the western world think that we are above this kind of behaviour and for man to move forward I think we have to accept that we are all the same animal.
Anyway, have a read, let me know what you think...
I must admit that this is one of the most strange and disturbing news stories that i've heard in a while!Maybe it's time to turn the tables and start the sport of ferral ned hunting. All this talk of the a deer cull certainly makes me think that maybe the cull should be aimed at something else...
I must admit, as I read this story there were tears in my eyes…Where ever you’re from and who ever you are it’s worth taking time out to look at this. It really makes you think what kind of a society you live in.For me, it’s not just the fact that a family like this exists. It’s more that the safe guards were not there within our society to protect a young girl and her parents from this kind of evil. If anything, the current social habitat nurtures people like this. I just don’t believe that the ASBO is the answer. It’s a weak answer to a tough problem.The authorities had been informed that a problem existed between the two families but like a little child saying, “what’re you going to do about it?” the Connor family realised that there was little the police could do to stop then and continued their campaign of hatred.The parents are unfit to be parents and as a consequence their children are unfit to be members of our society. The more we let this go on, the bigger the problem is going to get. You can issue ASBOs till doomsday it’s blatantly obvious that it’s not the answer to this problem.I think there’s a need for a two-fold approach to this problem:i) We need to send out a clear message that this behaviour will not be tolerated within our society and those who continue in this fashion need to be removed from society.ii) We need more state influence in the life of teenagers. There are large numbers of parents out there who are struggling to cope with bringing up their children. Whether it’s because of less or no support from partners or lacking the parenting skills required to control their children, we need to face up to the fact that certain areas of society have a problem with this. It’s not something to be ashamed of but I think it should be the government’s duty to support the family unit before supporting wars in far off lands and a larger stockpile of nuclear warheads.As I mentioned in an earlier article on this blog, it should be society’s responsibility to bridge the parenting gap that currently exists. By engaging kids in a full curriculum of activities within the community, they won’t have to hang about on street corners and simple problems can be solved with simple solutions.I just can’t understand the lack of common sense or creative policy making within our government and the opposition parties. Enough is enough…
In short, it doesn't make nice reading or viewing for that matter. In total between 350 and 500 civilians, mostly women and children were cut down by US soldiers. Eye witness reports from the time said that as locals bowed to welcome their guests they were beaten with rifle butts, women were raped and children were shot as they huddled for shelter. To read more by all means have a look through this further information on the My Lai Massacre...
