In the aftermath of the brutal slayings of two overseas-born kiwis - Blessie and Mr Kumar (as they're 'known' to me, anyhow) - a couple thoughts have occurred to me...
Some would (be *fain to) - but they hardly can, they clearly can't in such circumstances (yes, admittedly, only 'alleged', supposedly, at present), yea, how could they? - defend, to the very hilt; to their **dying breath even, such savage thuggery/brutal and callous savagery and misanthropy. There is in a very real sense nothing left to say about it, is there, only the involuntary sucking in of one's breath as one contemplates - yet again - the gratuitous, almost flippant, snuffing out of another innocent life in what was once quite rightly known as God's Own (land).
Now let's clear up something at the outset. This writer is certainly not advocating - never has advocated and doubtless never will advocate - the arming of (say) dairy owners to help prevent such tragedies occurring, as both Mike Hosking and John Campbell, however fleetingly at the introduction to their shows last night, reported that some, somewhere (presumably in the vicinity or amidst the kith and kin of said victims), had themselves suggested in the initial predictable fallout from said incidents.
But what I also won't be doing is finding even a skerrick of fault with any who do in fact advocate such a drastic response to things. For who around has any other conceivable answer to the situation, I mean, really? No, really?
So what then of those who, also quite predictably even before the cursor's 'ink' has dried upon this post, automatically get their a into g into response to the above idea, and spout off to one and all about how hell would first have to freeze over before this once peaceful land succumbed to such incivility? That is, of allowing its bedevilled, threatened citizenry to have the selfsame rights and privileges as their 'enemies' (for want of a more appropriate term). It's difficult for them, I fully realize, for the 'do gooder liberals' as they're often referred to, to even countenance such a thought, of allowing this fair nation to succumb to the 'American disease' (as it's often regarded, if not stated as such).
And I readily concede that is a wholly valid concern, one that I also share, as in fact no doubt many other much more notable and respected kiwis do. Such as the likes of Gary McCormick, for example, who on today's regular National Radio Panel discussion signalled his own disquiet with the U.S. situation, and his consequent sympathy for the reality that President Obama, with all the power and authority apparently at his ready disposal, likewise can apparently do little about the matter himself. Yet also revealed his utter contempt for the present New Zealand status quo, which allows such atrocities - albeit on a far smaller scale it cannot but be admitted - to likewise occur with sickening and all-so-predictable regularity. Offering his own, no doubt merely tentative, solution of some graded system, like that now applied to driver licenses, whereby folk transgressing such legal and more importantly moral and ethical principles, accumulate 'points' which, upon reaching a certain level, send them directly to jail, without passing go or collecting a cent - let alone $200.
Some who know me well may be more than somewhat surprised, even appalled that I may now be classifiable among the 'redneck' element of society. So what caused me to come to this pass, you - or rather they - may well ask? And remember, I'm certainly not personally promoting such measures, only tolerating or rather 'entertaining', if for the briefest of moments, their possibility or rather plausibility. Essentially in response to those who would likewise automatically dismiss them out of hand. But perhaps it'd be more apt to say I simply see their eventual inevitability, as opposed to being at all inwardly supportive of such.
Perhaps the name Lois Dear means something to you. Her brutal, utterly unprovoked murder - back in 2006 I believe - changed everything for me. Indeed if it weren't for my lack of organization though certainly not motivation, I'd have long since - indeed I did once personally contact Norm Withers in Christchurch thereabouts - helped create a citizens-initiated petition in preparation for a citizens-initiated referendum on the matter.
For one 'simple' reason, and one alone. Lois Dear could well have been my own beloved Mum, brutally disposed of by some callous individual, whether stoked up on drugs or otherwise. By simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, despite likewise being someone who has spent her own life going about doing good and helping one and all as she ever has.
Yes, Mrs Dear was the means I believe the One Above used to unseal the springs of heartfelt sympathy, nay empathy, sealed up deep within me, for all those others like Mrs Dear whose lives have been wretchedly and miserably and mercilessly cut short - in Aotearoa-New Zealand, for starters. For, trite and well-worn as the saying may well be, there but for the grace of God could well have been my own dear Mum. And she too shares the name Lois - or rather Louise - the name also of my first childhood sweetheart (at the tender age of eight to nine, just after my parents split up).
*Gladly/willingly, for those unfamiliar with 'Olden' English.
**Certainly no pun remotely intended.
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