Including Rockin’ Chair Writers, Inspire Me Thursday, Fiction Friday and Friday 5.
Have you had a go yet?
Welcome to my Friday Magazine post.
A Sunday Times poll in the UK has suggested the public would support a youth curfew to combat youth crime. It seems that modern political attitudes have now rubbed off on the public, and it is wrong.
We all want youth crime to stop.
But is it right to punish every youth because of the few? Sadly, this is too often happening today. If a minority do something wrong, the answer is to stop everyone doing it.
This is a terrible corruption of legislation and responsibility. In effect, it take away the onus of the bad to change, and authority to combat the actual problem. Blaming everyone is an easy way out. And now the public is beginning to go this way, more freedoms will be lost.
Maternity rights damage promotion for women.
So says the boss of the British Equalities and Human Right Commission. Think about this. A person who is for equality says that measures to guarantee equality actually destroy it.
Full marks for this courageous stand, for it is absolutely true. No boss is going to promote women without thinking about the possibility of them getting pregnant, and taking months off, for which the boss has to continue to pay them and keep the job open.
It is a classic case of legislators making laws that only work on paper. In the real world, a business will protect itself. Of course, I’m not saying that equality should not be had – simply that it is not always as easy as law makers foolishly believe.
Next Magazine post Monday. See you then, and have a great weekend.
© Anthony North, July 2008
PERFECT DAYS
Perfect days, happy days,
days we wrap in a haze,
of memories that we never forget,
days without a single regret
There’s been many such days through my life,
like the day I took a wife,
or when adventure couldn’t weigh me down,
and off I went to London Town,
or when that new born cry is heard,
a week of such days I’ve incurred,
or when the civilian seemed a bore,
so into the forces in search of more,
or when my writing was read en masse,
I felt I belonged in a different class
Perfect days, we remember them well,
but what is it on which we dwell?
Life itself we rearrange,
‘cos on days like this,
we change
(c) Anthony North, July 2008
******************************
POLKA DOT DARK – Fiction
It was the last time I was going to let them clobber me. Here I was, laid in the hay, derisive messages scrawled all over the wall beside me. Well enough of these bullies! I’d heard of the power, and now, as the dark descended, it was time to see if it would work.
I’d been apprenticed to a magician in my adolescence, when we think we know of the power of the mind, and the strength of our own character. But as that ‘thing’ appeared, I had let out a loud wail, never to touch magic again, no matter how much he would encourage me.
But now, it was time once more. I needed the power. I needed …
I knelt down, a stick in my hand – a makeshift wand. I remembered the incantations, and as I closed my eyes, they flowed freely.
I knew when the time would be close – when I was close to reaching the centre – the god-head, deep down in all our minds. The dark would be punctuated by a myriad of bright polka dot-like shapes. Eidetic imagery, I think they call it, and in a way I both feared and yearned for it to appear.
And appear it did, filling my vision, my mind, my universe, and I existed in the dark, for in the dark you found LIGHT!!!!
It exploded before me, and a single dot changed shape and soon, towering over me, was …
Myself.
I was filled with the magic now, and now it was time to approach the bullies once more.
I found them. I stood before them. I dared them.
And they scurried off, never to return, for now I was whole. I had search my inner depths and found the secret. Found confidence!
© Anthony North, July 2008
BEYOND THE BLOG 