Wednesday, January 11, 2006


New proposals yesterday in the UK from the Government - and I agree there is massive need out there - out here.

Nice communities - ghettos of nice leafy suburbs, no Vicky Pollards in sight, may say there is no issue and it is wrong to punish all the nice young people for a few 'yobs' .
(how I hate that word 'Yobs' which is used so often - even respectable newspapers ......... the 'beautiful human' principle is applied to all human kind and is not about behaviour but the central core and value of all human beings - and becoming)


There is trouble on the streets and communities are self destructing and the ones who cop the aggro are the ones who live in these poorest of communities. So something needs doing - and not only more houses but more communities with all the needs of humans met ...... of such is the kingdom.

Disruptive families, it is quoted, would be expected to sign up to a strict behaviour code in return for 24-hour professional counselling and family support. I like the latter but the risk of going into a mode of 'control' concerns me. These Vicky Pollard families have few resources to bring to being successful parent and family makers. We need to be gentle and loving and yet work with them, through gaining confidence, to help them build themselves up and only having a small repertoire of activities. They need to become response-able ........ able to respond to the tough life that living in poverty brings.

Problem families who faced eviction or their children being taken into care would qualify to be sent on intensive family support schemes modelled on a project running in Dundee which claims an 84% success rate. Some families would have to live in dedicated "secure" accommodation for up to 12 months as part of the scheme; others may be allowed to stay in their own homes.
This is harsh but there needs to be some intervention - not by humans in uniforms but local workers who understand and care.
Humans respond to love.
If humans feel secure, remember the base line of Maslow, they will respond with a positive attitude.
There is a massive need for facilitating/supporting their growth into emotional security.
Otherwise ........ don't we all lash out if we feel oppressed and have no other skills to enable us to be response-able!




it’s got to make a difference ...... by Paul Field

i don’t wanna buy Jesus on a shiny corporate cd
i’m not looking for a lifestyle based on some kind of holy mtv
i don’t wanna new experience to take me deeper into myself
i want the kind of faith that’s going to make me
some good to someone else

it’s got to make a difference, from the cradle to the grave
to the diamonds and the dirt, that we dig up along the way
it’s got to make a difference, to our short attention span
if a cross can be a crown, and if god can be a man

i don’t wanna come to worship for a sunday morning shine
like a pill to take for holiness
washed down with bread and wine
i can’t kneel before an altar built on riches and success
i want love to touch my heart nothing more & nothing less

it’s got to make a difference, from the cradle to the grave
to the diamonds and the dirt, that we dig up along the way
it’s got to make a difference, to our short attention span
if a cross can be a crown, and if god can be a man

it’s got to make a difference, in a world of our mistakes
to the lies that we can’t swallow, to the shit that we won’t take
it’s got to make a difference, if we start to understand
that it completely changes everything if god can be a man

every man and woman equal, let compassion draw the line
from Baghdad into the white house, from Israel to Palestine
it’s got to make a difference, from the bottom to the top
let the hope begun in Jesus, be the passion we can’t stop

for the outcast and the broken, to the hungry and the poor
for the zealot and the terrorist, who are beating on our door
beyond the streets of Babylon
we’ve got to find the prayer to pray
that we might go beyond religion, and let love have her way

Paul field

Paul is a Greenbelter
songwriter
performer
Greenbelt artiste and workshop leader
and a right good geezer