Don't agree with Gay Marriage? Don't get one then!

I try not to get involved in many arguments.  Really, some things are just beneath me and generally, I choose to ignore some of the homophobic things that come from the Church.  However, listening to some of the things this week, it seems that we have gone backwards in time. The newspapers and television have been carrying the story of Cardinal O'Brien using words whcih seem to liken Gay marriage to slavery and saying that it is grotesque among other things.

Now, I fully support this individuals right to his opinion, just as I am entitled to my right to think that he has an invisible friend.  But, this sort of behaviour belongs in the last century where it belongs, not in 21st Century Britain. I am in a civil partnership; I have been for a number of years now.  In my mind and to all practical purposes I am married.  I class myself as married and I have the same legal rights as someone who is married, I am to all intents and purposes, married and I am glad I live in a place where I have never encountered opposition to my sexuality and am accepted as the slightly odd individual with pink hair.

Cardinal O'Brien has the ability to have his opinion listened to.  He is a representative of an institution with millions of members and his words, if they were referencing another class of people would be considered a hate crime.  Can you imagine if he had said that women going out to work was 'dismantling a fundamental human right', or coloured people. There would be a huge outcry about this.

 The words of this person intimate that a section of the population have less right to live a happy and fulfilling life than other people.  Because I, and millions of others, find happiness with someone who happens to have the same genitalia, then We are not to be accorded the same protection as those who prefer a partner with different genitals. I do not want to be a member of an establishment who thinks that ANY other person has less right than I have to do anything.

This man is purely and simply homophobic and if his church is too, then I refuse to acknowledge it.   However, I do think that this has brought a level of homophobic behaviour to the fore that I, luckily, have not experienced and I am stunned that it is such an acceptable form of behaviour in Britain and highlights the work that still needs to be done to create a truly equal society, starting with the Church!

Pride in Penrith

This morning, I joined PACT at the Castletown side of the Thacka Beck Nature Reserve collecting rubbish along the side of the beck.  Over 20 people gave up their time and energy to pick up a variety of litter between 10 and 12.

Some of the volunteers at Thacka Beck - with a sample of the litter.

In the 2 hours we were collecting, we collected about 75 - that is SEVENTY FIVE - bags of rubbish, and a variety of strange items, within less than a square mile, which included a television and a footstool!!  There were also a LOT of undesirable things left in this potentially beautiful area; dozens and dozens of bottles of what we suspected was urine, bags of HUMAN faeces as well as the hundreds of bags of dog dirt that seem to litter any places that people walk dogs.

A TV and footstool, honestly?

It was really wonderful that all these people got together for no other reason than to try to make things better.  It was a shame that the local businesses did not get involved, with the exception of Darren Latimer at Tarmac Ltd, who cleaned all the borders of their business - and sent me a lovely email afterwards saying

It was a pleasure to be part of something that has resulted in a major transformation of what was looking like the local dump. It was good to see so many volunteers...

It is a shame that this had to be done at all.  I cannot understand what happened to our society that it has become acceptable to leave bottles of urine lying around - or bags full of poo.  Some of the rubbish, I can just about understand; the wind blows a lot in this area, so some rubbish will blow to the area.  But some of the things we found, must have been brought there deliberately; why not just carry on to the tip if you have gone to the effort of putting it in a vehicle and taking it to the Beck!

While we were cleaning on the side of the beck, Cumbria Wildlife Trust were out doing the same on the Thacka Beck Nature Reserve.  They have regular events which includes a monthly clean up at Thacka.  We discussed the dog mess problem and the fact that they can provide bins for dog owners to put the mess in, but cannot get it collected, which needs the agreement of Eden District Council.  PACT have also offered bins, but EDC seem reticent to allow these bins to be collected.

The need to hold cleaning events shows that there is something fundamentally changed in society.  It is OK to leave bags of poo (animal and human, can you tell its something that has disturbed me?) and bottles of wee lying around.  Its fine to drop litter behind you and even to bring large items and dump them.  What happened to the pride people used to have in their neighbourhoods?  What happened to common courtesy when you visited someone else's neighbourhood?  Living in Penrith, I have noticed a change over the last few years in the way that we are living and interacting with our environment and each other.  I grew up in a town where there was a sense of community; where people smiled at each other and said hello to total strangers and events were held that fostered this sense of community.  I remember that Castletown had its own Pageant and we all went to the ‘Rec’ for the day; the older people went on organised trips and there was always help if a person needed it and it saddens me that this is disappearing from the town, little by little. 


BUT, I have a plan.  There are a number of people out there who are willing to do something to try to create pride in Penrith and these people are trying to do something about the general malaise in Penrith, including myself.  People like the group PACT and the CWT are trying to encourage people to have a pride in the place they live, and this, while not bringing back the community spirit I grew up with, will most definitely make Penrith a nicer place to live, for all of us.  Therefore, I am going to keep on joining in things like litter picking at local places and keep complaining about dog mess and grass verges being ruined by wagons.  I live in one of the most beautiful places in Britain, and I want to rebuild the Pride in Penrith - one street at a time, if that's what it takes.