The honour of Gay people serving their countries.

by Lee Wilkinson on Wednesday, 01 December 2010 at 10:47

On the subject of Gay people who are willing to serve and die for their countries: consider the comparison of the speech delivered by Shylock in Merchant Of Venice and substitute Gay for Jew or indeed any other human being willing to honour the dignity of service to others.

He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.  

I would be mightily impressed that those who dislike a person for their lifestyle would stick by their sad set of morals if they were in a hole on a battle field with a leg missing and bleeding to death knowing you might never see your children again but for the aid of one of your team, now remember he's gay. Would you refuse that help knowing you would never be able to look into the eyes of those you loved? That little girl who sits on your knee at breakfast time to share you toast, the little boy who wants you to play with him in the first snow of the year. That beautiful woman who has given her life to you. All of this I am sure you would not give up because the medic who is about to give you a blood transfusion with bullets and shit flying everywhere. That brave soul who is willing to risk their life for yours irrespective of your beliefs....You should be ashamed of your so called morals and get on with your life and let others get on with theirs. Maybe they should be allowed to declare their choice of lifestyle on the battle ground prior to giving medical attention.

Live passionately, ask why!

The privilege of parenting.

It is not a parents job to instill in their children what may not be achieved, rather it is our privilege to walk beside them as they dream the visions of tomorrow. How many times has the cure for cancer been possible within our grasp through the fleeting life of a human being, only to be stolen by the limitations placed on us by well meaning parents, teachers and education systems. Those who have made great strides in the past had the power of dreams as their guiding light -  Einstein, Richard Branson, Thomas Edison, Newton, Leonardo Da vinci and Vincent van Gogh to name what amounts to a fraction of the people who dared to dream of something which was to many, an impossibility.
If the present was brought upon by giving up our dreams to someone else's reality then we should claim back our dreams and envision a better future. One in which peace is the norm and compassion is the commodity of the majority. 

Live passionately, ask why!

Lee

Kate Blewett, undercover hero..

A friend of mine is a very successful and influential documentary film maker she has brought about change in the world with her films in a way that few others have. Inspired by her I am starting off a path of film making which I hope will also make a difference. Last week I had the great pleasure (Thanks to Kate) to go and interview her on camera and talk about her life. Apart from a few technical mistakes I was taken by something that was even more inspiring to me. I took along my daughter Erin. Erin is fourteen and I thought that a meeting with Kate justified taking Erin out of school for the day.

As we started Kate and I thought that it would be a nice idea for Erin to take on the role of interviewer. We wrote down several questions to be asked and off we went. As a film maker and a Father I was taken by the way Erin stepped up to the plate. Suddenly this fourteen year old kid was no longer a kid she was an interviewer. She moved from the questions we had written down to questions of her own and began interacting with Kate with confidence and passion.

What I learned was that given a chance young people are ready for the task and they do care about what is going on in the world.

Here are parts one and two of the interview, I hope you will give it a look.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZx_OfWJkNo





Lee

Belief

If you had a captive audience and fifteen minutes what would you say? If you had the opportunity to spend the day listening to people talking about things they are passionate about what would you want to hear? If you new this was your last year to live what would you do and how would you want to be remembered? If you could change one thing in the world what would it be?


I believe that every human being has the potential for greatness.

I believe that somewhere in the world as we speak there is someone else with the potential to discover the cure for cancer.

I believe there can be world peace, it may not look quite like we would think but it is possible.

I believe there are undiscovered and untold riches in the world which can bring an end to the suffering, famine and death.

I believe that the creativity of every person is largely untapped and under utilized.

I believe that if we spent more time working on solutions instead of creating problems we could solve many of the worlds problems in an astoundingly short time. In order to do that however, we would have to let go of the need to be right and shift our thinking to being successful and understand  they are not one of the same.

I believe the celebration of achievement at all levels is far more important than the criticism    we so quickly want to give to other peoples efforts.

I believe that it does not take what we believe a genius is, to be a genius.

I believe it is the belief we have and not the talent we think others have that will carry us forward and on to greater things as a collective group.

I believe love will always conquer hatred and if we simply believed that the future is in our children, we would treat them far better than we do.


Live passionately, ask why!

Have Faith, Live Passionately. Pass The Torch

In this changing landscape we live in, where times are uncertain and many of the values we have come to believe in have eroded away; it is at times like these when we must look to the simple truths to guide us.

There is one fact which to date has not been proven wrong: our time on earth is short and it to will pass. One day we will cease to exist but for the memories we have left behind and the impact we have had on others.

Therefor:

Take every day as though it is your last and remember, the sun is always shining even though sometimes it is obscured by clouds.

Spend time with your children especially when they are young. It is not a Woman's job or a man’s job, in fact, it is not a job at all, but a pleasure and a privilege. Their lives change daily and a second missed can never be reclaimed.

Children do not ask to come into the world, that choice is made for them. The responsibility lies with the parents to create the opportunities that will allow them to live a full and challenging life.

Learn from others especially your parents, their successes and failures where all hard fought for and even in their failures there are lessons to be learned.

Do something with your life that you love instead of punching a time clock. Something that will inspire you to get out of bed everyday and give you joy and pleasure. Trust that what you do will bring the same joy to others.

Do not sell yourself or others short, the abilities and possibilities of humans is relatively untapped and the future is limitless.

What you do today will have an impact on your future, your children’s future, your children’s, children’s future and countless others who pass through your life.

It takes less effort to be kind and the rewards to you and others are immeasurable. You will feel better and so will others. You may have saved someone's life by simply interrupting their day and being kind. You may have been the last straw to someone who has experienced grief.

Save a little and spend a little you really cannot take it with you.

Do not think for one minute that someone else has your best interest at heart only your parents will do that, everybody else has their own set of problems to work out. Care about people and, in general they will care about you but remember the final outcome is in your hands.

Get an education. Not necessarily College or University, some of the brightest people in the world are self educated and hold no degree, however their contribution to life has changed the world.

Pay for nothing with credit except your home and maybe a car. The rest, with a little patience and hard work will come to you. However if all of your income is taken up by paying back debts that you incurred for short term gain, you will never get ahead.

Do something nice for people when ever you can and don’t expect anything in return. It will be a wonderful surprise when it is returned.

Have faith but remember to date it has not been proven that any superior being is alive or ever was. Have faith but do not press that faith on others. Others will see that you have faith and in turn will have their own faith. Faith is a personal thing which will serve you on dark days. Faith is also the thing that when against all odds, one can succeed.

Remember we are all on this journey together and what goes around comes around.

Have an amazing life, because you can! Pass the torch!





Live Passionately, As Why!

The world is crying out to be inspired again!

We do not need more cctv cameras or another set of rules. We do not need more Nanny State governing or people telling what we can and cannot do or when we can do it, and we certainly do not need any more promises or arguments from Politicians about who was to blame and why they will be better and what they will do. Most of us are mature enough to make our own decisions now. What we need is inspiration, from leaders who believe strongly enough about the possibility that we are! We will do the rest!

When people are inspired, they will discover the what and find the how!

If you are anything like me then by now you must be wondering when the promises of the last several generations of politicians will come to fruition. It strikes me that to win an election all one needs to do is blame the last lot and say what it is that you will do. The only problem is between their backsides leaving the inauguration ball and taking their seat in the first day in office they have been bushwhacked by every special interest group and corporation on the planet. We are all tired of broken promises and promises that we know can never really happen at all, we just want to believe that something will come true and give us hope.

The problem is I believe, that as a parent we find it hard to come clean an all the promises we make to our children, why then would we believe that a leader in these difficult times could do the same with the hundreds of promises they have made in order to get into office. I am sure they all go into politics with an honest heart, but are soon beaten down by our demands.

I believe that what we really need to get us through the present down turn is inspiration! Now I am sure many of you are saying: “Nice idea Lee, but you cannot pay the bills with inspiration.” No indeed one cannot, but we also cannot pay bills with broken promises so maybe we need a shift in thinking? Maybe it is up to us to move forward and not wait for the politicians to take the lead. The thing that we need though is an inspired idea in order to achieve great things. We need to look for people who inspire us and make tears well up when we hear them speak or the hairs on the back of our neck stand on end when they talk about the things that they are inspired to do. We need to seek out those people who against all odds achieve great things, because they simply will not believe otherwise. You see, we are enough to go forward we simply need permission.

In 1961, President Kennedy made the declaration to the world that the United States of America would not only recapture the lead for the space race but they would have a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Sadly he did not live to see his inspiration come to fruition, but what he did do was galvanize a nation into thinking once more, that they could be the greatest nation in the world. It seemed like an impossible task especially given that the Russians had already taken the first step by putting Sputnik in orbit. Luckily Kennedy would not accept no as a possibility and a Nation raised it’s head once more and became an inspiration to the rest of the world. On July 21st 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the moon, inspired by the belief that President Kennedy had in the people of American to conquer the nearly impossible.

Sir Winston Churchill in WW11 inspired a small group of islands (Great Britain) to make a stand for what he believed was wrong and to take action against the rising army of Adolf Hitler. He made the statement that his fellow countrymen would rather die before they would surrender and live in tyranny. And he was right, my parents generation rose to that challenge and fought alone for a year, against what can only be considered insurmountable odds. In doing so their spirits soared and they came together as a Nation of doers taking it upon themselves to answer the call. Inspired by one mans undying commitment and love for his country. He made no promises and he broke none. He simply inspired the will of a people to become One, in a cause which was greater than their individual limitations.

He said; “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."

I believe our spirits are greater than the present crisis and we will overcome the petty bickering and disagreements of our politicians. There will be those among us who simply will refuse to submit to the 'stinking thinking' of the 'Nay Sayers' and rise above it to be the next generation to inspire great things from us. You may have to look a little harder to see them, but they are there.



Live passionately, ask why!

In these troubled times

In these troubled times I believe that we should search our inner sanctuary to reconnect with the person we once were. The one who believed that nothing was impossible, the eternal optimist. We may find that person waiting at the starting post ready to run the race again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGeHXP24E0E&feature=player_embedded

Live passionately, ask why!