The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers.

Collarspace Discussion Forums

Home Login Search

The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers.

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Dungeon of Political and Religious Discussion >> The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers.

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers. - 9/17/2010 10:52:03 AM

tigreetsa

Posts: 132
Joined: 4/30/2010
From: SW London
Status: offline

I refuse to protest against the Pope's visit to London.

Why?

As many as 20-25% of the white homeless people you see sleeping on the streets in London are Polish and identify with the LGBT community in Poland.

I came out publicly as me, Stella, in support of them in November 2005 and in defiance of both the Polish Catholic Church and the Kaczynski twins (who became the Polish government) chose to suffer the same fate as they did, sacrificing my position and life as a Polish cultural icon to sleep in the snow and subzero temperatures of the streets of Warsaw.

Like them, I fled the persecution, hostility and social exclusion they faced as well and like them arrived in London totally destitute, homeless and sleeping on the streets.

Unlike them I received acceptance back into my own native British society and community and was given the help and assistance I needed to be able to rebuild my life.

The only help they receive right now is to be sent straight back to Poland. There are about 1,000 of them sleeping every night on the streets in London, totally destitute, they live on what they can beg off others, but begging in London is difficult when you can't speak English and you are homeless and on the streets.

I call them The Polish Thousand.

After five years I am still the only person interested in their plight and situation. This is my own personal struggle - the Polish Thousand.

This month is also the 30th anniversary of the Polish Solidarity movement, which was set up in September 1980 by Lech Walesa and Aleksander Hall in Gdansk, Poland.

This weekend I also complete filming of my debut film.

There is too much hatred and conflict in the world today. I have no reason to add to it.

Instead of protesting against the Pope, irrespective of what you believe or don't believe, I ask you to forget about the hatred and conflict for just one day, and to dedicate either a moment's silence or a prayer in dedication to the Polish Thousand and all the lives lost and ruined by the persecution of the LGBT and BDSM communities in Poland.

On the 30th anniversary of the Polish Solidarity movement, I ask you, irrespective of who you are, to spend one minute in solidarity with The Polish Thousand, and one day without hatred and conflict.

I ask you to pray for forgiveness for all those religious and political leaders such as the Pope, Lech Walesa, Prymas Cardinal Jozef Glemp, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk of Radio Maryja, President Ahmedinejad of Iran, the Taliban, and others who advocate the persecution, intolerance and bigotry aimed towards fellow human beings.

I thank you in advance for your support.

_____________________________

'There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I we've been through that
And that is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.'
All Along The Watchtower (Bob Dylan)

Profile

Post #: 1

RE: The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers. - 9/17/2010 10:55:21 AM

popeye1250

Posts: 18104
Joined: 1/27/2006
From: New Hampshire
Status: offline

So Stella, are you saying that England (is) a third world country?

_____________________________

"But Your Honor, this is not a Jury of my Peers, these people are all decent, honest, law-abiding citizens!"

(in reply to tigreetsa)

Profile

Post #: 2

RE: The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers. - 9/17/2010 11:02:51 AM

SL4V3M4YB3

Posts: 3506
Joined: 12/20/2007
From: S.E. London U.K.
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: tigreetsa
but begging in London is difficult when you can't speak English and you are homeless and on the streets.

There is always mime.

_____________________________

Memory Lane...been there done that.

(in reply to tigreetsa)

Profile

Post #: 3

RE: The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers. - 9/17/2010 6:45:53 PM

Termyn8or

Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline

Unfortunately Stella, about 89% of the people do not understand this at all.

They don't understand the meaning of not fighting fire with petrol, why you simply choose not to antagonize at times, why I don't shoot the motherfucker who I let stay here rent free for ten months and robbed me of my last dollar leaving in the middle of the night.

They don't understand the meaning of taking a break from fighting. But it's easy to continue the fight when it is easy. People right here on CM write pages of insults over the most trivial of issues and start the name calling and trying to insult one another, because it is easy.

One day some may learn, perhaps they will get into a real fight, like the Poloks on horseback facing German tanks, like Vikings who's blood pressure peaked at no doubt at about 900 over 300 during a real battle. A battle of strength as well as strategy. Maybe one day they will really be faced with a life and death situation and find out that all the hit movies they watched were nowhere near as educational as they thought.

Maybe. It might be cold, but there are winter coats, thermal underwear and so forth, and maybe the ilk of the Westboro Baptist church will one day face some real Hell's Angels at someone's funeral. Maybe with enough strife they will realize that sometimes they must set aside their childish impulses at times when it is appropriate to just shut the fuck up.

And ironically, the coming worldwide depression might turn out to be the best educational tool in the world to date.

Maybe.

T

(in reply to tigreetsa)

Profile

Post #: 4

RE: The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers. - 9/18/2010 6:28:23 AM

pahunkboy

Posts: 33061
Joined: 2/26/2006
From: Central Pennsylvania
Status: offline

Stella,

This is what scares me about a collapse. In hard times there is a rush to puritanism. and gays- end up- along with other groups- a target.

From the news I seen- I did not think these to be Poles. It sounded abit like our illegal alien issue here in the US.

(in reply to Termyn8or)

Profile

Post #: 5

RE: The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers. - 9/18/2010 7:36:52 AM

DCWoody

Posts: 1401
Joined: 10/27/2006
Status: offline

To be blunt, fuck 'em. We are not a huge country, we are crowded already....it doesn't matter how noble their cause (and to be even blunter, when competing with rwandanesque situations, suffering homophobia doesn't cut it)...we can not take in every so called refugee. So yeah, I'd tell 'em the same....if you're living on the streets here, go back to poland.....that we've pretty much eliminated involuntary street sleeping from our own population is no reason to import people from elsewhere to keep benches warm.

That said, I naturally sympathise with various breeds of weirdos being oppressed around the world, though I reckon Poland is far from the most urgent.

(in reply to pahunkboy)

Profile

Post #: 6

RE: The Pope's visit in London - call for prayers. - 9/18/2010 8:36:42 AM

Aneirin

Posts: 6121
Joined: 3/18/2006
From: Tamaris
Status: offline

Many who rough the streets of our country are ill, mentally or otherwise, same with the prisons since the asylums closed, those forgotten about by a society that says it cares, but doesn't have the money to care in a country often vaunted to be the fourth richest in the world.

It is very easy to become one of those who sleep the streets, it is for many not far away and may even come nearer with the austerity the current regime proposes.

If there is fight left in people after austerity hits there will be a rise in crime, if not the homeless situation will become worse.

As long as we have people unfortunate enough to be sleeping on the streets, we are far from a socialist country.

Perhaps even the time of the rule of parliament has had it's day, perhaps the crown should again take the reigns, for it sure has the money to help this country and why should people respect royalty when it does little to offer respect in turn beyond saying nice placating things in a speech now and again.

_____________________________

Everything we are is the result of what we have thought, the mind is everything, what we think, we become - Guatama Buddha

Conservatism is distrust of people tempered by fear - William Gladstone

(in reply to DCWoody)

Profile

Post #: 7