Another day, and more rioting has occurred overnight. It also occurred to me that I can take cold comfort in the fact that, as a citizen, I no longer have to worry about deportation or denial of citizenship if I whallop the living crap out of someone trying to break into or burn down my home – yay! As a Texan by birth, I feel incredibly naked without the explicit and understood right to protect your home and property, and I am relieved as can be that this current government has expressed intent and understanding that there are many native and otherwise who have been, understandably, concerned with such. So while I don’t intend on hiding guns and knives all through my house (perish the thought!), I’ll settle for contentment that I can backhand someone down the stairs with a cricket bat to buy time to call the police… ’cause really, that’s all I need.

Not that we’re having any troubles in my neck of the woods, mind; it’s good to be off the beaten path. I just sleep better knowing that I can protect my home and my family! Having said that, I am wary of how far ‘protection’ of the people is going to be carried in the coming weeks and months. I’m pleased that the government and police have resisted the demands of portions of the citizenry to roll in the Army (they’ve seen in the past that this is a bad idea), or water cannons (risk of damage to buildings is much too high with how closely stacked British cities are//crowds aren’t that big or stationary). And I definitely don’t approve of the government name-calling – it just isn’t mete. Yes, these people are probably mainly poorly educated (at least one person on the dock overnight was a school teacher, so it’s not all ‘bad’ people!), but you, me, everybody – we failed them. And I don’t mean in some namby-pamby Big Society way. I mean that they were never taught to stand on their own two feet, to have pride in themselves, and now you’re telling them the same thing they’ve had reinforced their lives – they’re scum, they’re criminals, they’re bad. And sure – totally should pay for the crimes they’ve done, but eesh… you can’t start disciplining folks in their 20s/late teens after a lifetime of them being taught to report their parents if they raised a hand… doesn’t really work so well.

Having said that, I’ve got two excellent pieces compliments of my good friend DiscoDoris that she’s posted in the past   day and change that are definitely good food for thought:

The riots: under class vs uber class
http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2011/08/the-riots-under-class-vs-uber-class/

and

Most of the Kids are Alright
http://rosamicula.livejournal.com/540476.html

I think that’s enough for now, and the husband’s shown up and finally enabled me to work… so I should try to crank out an hour’s worth. 🙂