Homophobia in London

AOG, London

I have been in London for less than 24 hours and already a story has hit the news that makes me loose my faith in humanity.

It appears that last week, right in Trafalgar Square, Ian Bayham, a 62 year old man, was assaulted outside the South African High Comission by three people.

Three teenagers, two of them girls of 17, and a boy of 19, named Joel Alexander, were arrested and will be tried in Court for the assault.

I cannot begin to understand what would make three young kids attack an older man because he was gay. According to the press, the motive of the assault is homophobia.

The Times writes that:

"Ian Baynham, 62, was walking through Trafalgar Square in Central London with a 30-year-old friend when a woman began shouting homophobic abuse at him.

He went to talk to her but she attacked him and a man with her is said to have punched him to the floor and then kicked him. A second young woman was also involved in the incident.

Mr Baynham, from Beckenham, southeast London, was taken to hospital after the attack two weeks ago suffering from severe brain damage."

Mr. Bayham died of a severe brain damage, according to the police, when doctors switched off his life support machine.

A vigil will take place this Friday in Trafalgar Square from 8 to 10 PM.

I have spent the afternoon with a good friend, and we were handed an invitation to the candle vigil.

Although I wish I could go, I won't be in London then, but I will be thinking about the incident.

Why?

Because with any luck, I might be 62 years old one day.

I would hate to be attacked by three teenagers so badly that I too would die from severe brain damage. And all because I was gay, like Ian Bayham.

I am sure that the kid's families are in shock as to the events and about what might happen to them. They have been charged, I think, with manslaughter.

There never is a reason as to why these things happen. How could there be? This is a hate crime, and like all hate crimes, it makes no sense. Ignorance is the motive. Also probably anger, and frustration. Alienation. It saddens me to read that these things still happen. It saddens me even more when I think that they will probably continue to happen when I turn 62.

For all our beauty, what a horrible species we really are.

Homo homini lupus .... indeed

Sotomayor's Medical History Sparks Wider Debate

AOG, Madrid

I agree that a post at the US Supreme Court is a very important post. I understand that service is lifelong. But to use health as criteria is, quite frankly, a form of prejudice.

People with Type 1 Diabetes have as much a right to hold high office as those without Type 1 Diabetes.

What if she developed the disease after being sworn in? No longer useful? Less able or capable because of it? I doubt it.

As a country we should be enlightened enough to take a chance on people whose health may not be 100% since, after all, nobody's health is 100% at any one time.

As a species, we start dying from the minute we are born. I think we should be able to look beyond the physical and concentrate on the intellectual.

Sonia Sotomayor should not be disqualified for suffering from a human condition.

About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

No longer the hero

AOG, Madrid

Navy Capt. Lisa Marie Nowak is, (was)? an astronaut and a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery.
Today she was arrested on battery and attempted kidnapping charges after allegedly trying to subdue Colleen Shipman, her romantic rival for the affections of astronaut and US Navy Commander Bill Oefelein, with pepper spray and abduct her from a parking lot at Orlando International Airport. The image below is her mug shot. How low have the mighty fallen?

Apparently both were "in a relationship" with Mr. Oefelein.

Nowak, who is 43 and married with three children (and has been an astronaut since 1996), has been charged with battery, attempted kidnapping, attempted burglary to a vehicle and destruction of evidence. Police have recommended Nowak be held without bond. She is thought to have travelled over 9,000 miles in order to murder the proverbial "other woman". Although in her case, she herself might be the "other, other woman".

This is the link to the story as told by CNN, who have been following the story.

There are a few occupations left from which we hear precious little about. Dictator is one of them, as is hand model, nuclear scientist and palace majordomo. But none of these is one which small children would choose as a life path. Perhaps Dictator.

However Astronaut is one of those professions small children dream about. So do the not-so-small children.

Since its inception, no one has looked upon this profession with anything but awe and respect. Amazingly, up until today, astronauts and their personal lives were largely off-hands for the general public.

Not anymore. Today the veil was lifted and astronauts and their personal lives, as it were, were brought down to earth. They were humanised. Granted, for all the wrong reasons, but today we saw human drama and tragedy in a group of people so removed from mainstream life that any information, positive or negative, is welcome. And ridiculed and talked about and everything else. But, collectively, we all lost something today.

The cynics amongst us will say things like "they are people after all", "what did you expect?", "those crazy americans". They will be right in thinking so. However....all I know is that I will go to bed tonight with one less hero in my mind.