Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Protests - Compare and contrast
The Times reports on the awaited passenger protest on First Great Western trains, apparently an appalling service has been ongoing for quite some time. The idea of the protest was to board the trains without paying the fare, and presenting a fake protest ticket when requested.
The pathetic public couldn't even muster up enough courage and backbone for this simple non-consequential protest "Commuters took the fake tickets, but most also queued at the ticket widows to buy real ones." Why bother? You should be sending a message to the company and depriving them of their daily takings. Even the company know they're in the wrong: "The train company decided that pursuing non-paying rebels was not the thing to do in front of news cameras..." Both the passengers and the company know the passengers are being "shafted", but the company (either this one or another) needs the passengers more than the passengers need the company, but because the company is bigger than an individual, they (the passengers) sit back and accept it, allowing themselves to be bullied.
If they were charging to take them to prison (or worse), they'd still pay the fare.
On the other hand we have the Catholic Church and the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs as I shall refer to them). Now as regards lifestyle choices, I believe in freedom provided no harm is done to others, but that doesn't mean I agree with every choice made. Nor does it mean I have to cater for all choices, of course in a free market any choices not catered for by one will by supplied by another (if there's any demand) and it isn't really an area for legislation at all.
Nevertheless the SORs would ensure that Catholic adoption agencies could no longer choose not to use homosexual couples for adoption purposes, as this would be discriminatory. Now for Catholics, homosexual behaviour (along with many other types) is immoral; no amount of legislation, publicity, wishy washy niceness or anything else can alter that; of course it's a matter for the individuals concerned, but when you are responsible for placing a child into the care of others, you have to consider the best interests of the child, not within the context of the BBC, or the media or society, but you must be guided by your own morality and if your morality tells you a certain behaviour is wrong, then you cannot place children into that environment, no matter how many regulations come out of the closet.
"Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, said: “I suspect the bishops are hopelessly out of step with ordinary Catholics on this. Surely all that counts is the best interests of the child.”" Well no the bishops are in step with ordinary Catholics on this, most Catholics will not be too bothered by what people do and what lifestyle choices they make, but you cannot make the immoral, moral, by regulations and legislation. I for one, don't allow legislation or the media to affect my morality and neither do I suspect do the majority of ordinary Catholics.
The Catholic Church is threatening to, and will close its adoption agencies rather than compromise on morality. The passengers will do and accept anything rather than even risk upsetting the apple cart.
The pathetic public couldn't even muster up enough courage and backbone for this simple non-consequential protest "Commuters took the fake tickets, but most also queued at the ticket widows to buy real ones." Why bother? You should be sending a message to the company and depriving them of their daily takings. Even the company know they're in the wrong: "The train company decided that pursuing non-paying rebels was not the thing to do in front of news cameras..." Both the passengers and the company know the passengers are being "shafted", but the company (either this one or another) needs the passengers more than the passengers need the company, but because the company is bigger than an individual, they (the passengers) sit back and accept it, allowing themselves to be bullied.
If they were charging to take them to prison (or worse), they'd still pay the fare.
On the other hand we have the Catholic Church and the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs as I shall refer to them). Now as regards lifestyle choices, I believe in freedom provided no harm is done to others, but that doesn't mean I agree with every choice made. Nor does it mean I have to cater for all choices, of course in a free market any choices not catered for by one will by supplied by another (if there's any demand) and it isn't really an area for legislation at all.
Nevertheless the SORs would ensure that Catholic adoption agencies could no longer choose not to use homosexual couples for adoption purposes, as this would be discriminatory. Now for Catholics, homosexual behaviour (along with many other types) is immoral; no amount of legislation, publicity, wishy washy niceness or anything else can alter that; of course it's a matter for the individuals concerned, but when you are responsible for placing a child into the care of others, you have to consider the best interests of the child, not within the context of the BBC, or the media or society, but you must be guided by your own morality and if your morality tells you a certain behaviour is wrong, then you cannot place children into that environment, no matter how many regulations come out of the closet.
"Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, said: “I suspect the bishops are hopelessly out of step with ordinary Catholics on this. Surely all that counts is the best interests of the child.”" Well no the bishops are in step with ordinary Catholics on this, most Catholics will not be too bothered by what people do and what lifestyle choices they make, but you cannot make the immoral, moral, by regulations and legislation. I for one, don't allow legislation or the media to affect my morality and neither do I suspect do the majority of ordinary Catholics.
The Catholic Church is threatening to, and will close its adoption agencies rather than compromise on morality. The passengers will do and accept anything rather than even risk upsetting the apple cart.
Tags: protest, Church and State
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Labels: Church and State, protest
