#FPQ

The Most Appalling Things

/ animar64 / 2 Comments

 

“What dominates in this dismal case is that the accused, like the witnesses, tell, without the slightest emotion, the most appalling things.”- President of the Court of Assizes

 

I’ve just read a book called ” Eat Him If You Like ” which is based on historical fact.

Alain, whose story this is, was a victim of ‘ Fake News ‘ and a mindless mob.

In 1870 France a group of villagers brutally assaulted Alain de Monéys and then they nailed a horse shoe to one of his feet and then cut the toes off of his other foot. They gouged his eye out.

Those injuries didn’t kill him, the murderous mob burned him alive.

 

The oldest person tried for Alain’s murder was in his 60’s , the youngest who was encouraged to set the fire that killed him was around nine years old.

Why did they do this? Why did they go as far as to encourage a young child to participate in this demonic act?

In the book, not even the murderers really  knew… but this is the ‘how’.

The Villagers deemed Alain’ to be the enemy’ the ‘other’ even though they knew none of it was true.

Make no mistake Alain’s murderers, the members of the mob who tortured him, beat him, nailed a horse shoe to his foot and then dragged him- still alive to a dry lake bed where they would burn him alive, were his friends, people who liked and respected him, who knew him for his generosity.

They also  probably liked his Mother, who he called for before he died.

 

But in the end what mattered to them was the fantasy that they had spun about Alain being a Traitor. They invested emotional time and energy into recreating Alain into that someone else and they invested even more energy into holding that image together.

 

There was no turning back for them.

 

The truly evil act was the decision they made to beat and torture a man they knew to be a good person.  They  knew this fantasy was just that, but it became more real then what they KNEW to be true and they acted on it.

 

 

Four people were executed for killing Alain, others were sentenced to hard labor. The child was acquitted. But in the book the scope of how far gone these people were was when the Police treating this like a real murder investigation were faced with the realization that everyone who had been there and either attacked Alain or stood by and cheered needed to be arrested.

 

In other words- almost the entire town.

 

After reading this book my feeling was, they should have.

 

 

 

 

 

Fandango’s Provocative Question #115- Necessary Evil

 

 

Written By Me

/ animar64 / 4 Comments

Fandango’s Provocative Question#109

How many hours, on average, do you spend per day (or per week) on blogging-related activities? And, what do you think you might do with your time if you didn’t spend it on those blogging-related activities?

” Moth Dress ” by Louise Richardson
Photographer Unknown

When I am not writing/blogging/working on an idea:

I am walking my dog, working on art projects ( I really really suck at that but it’s fun ) like model building or drawing or photography ( I suck at that too, but again it’s fun ). I also like to watch ghost stories or suspense movies on Netflix.

My favorite, by far, are the movies about the supernatural  from India- OMG they know how to tell great ghost stories over there! I also enjoy Japanese movies about ghosts and curses because I’m familiar with those ( my Mom grew up in Hawaii and she and her family LOVED to tell ghost stories) and stories about Japanese ghosts and demons are bone chillers.

Sometimes I just sit back and listen to music- random tracks- because when I hear music and sort of clear my head, random images pop up and sometimes those images are so weird that I get stories from them.

So when I am not actually writing, or working on an idea I suppose it’s easy to see I’m putting myself in places where I get ideas for things to write about. It’s all I ever really do.

As you can see on my blog, sometimes I come up with some great stuff and sometimes it might not be as great as other times.

But I feel about my writing the way people feel about their babies.

You might think your baby adorable but other people will look at a baby and see something that looks like a smooshy naked monkey that smells like milk and pee.

That’s how I look at my writing- it’s like a smelly, adorable smooshy thing that smells like milk and pee.

But I love it all the same and I’m proud of it, even though it isn’t perfect, or even sort of perfect.

After all, I put a lot of time and devotion into making all of it happen and that makes me feel like I am making my life count for something worthwhile.

What Have You Got To Lose?

/ animar64 / 6 Comments

Fandango’s Provocative Question #78:

Do you believe that students should be required to return to school for the new school year?

In a word my answer to this question is NO.

Here’s the ” why ” .

It shouldn’t really surprise anyone that Trump is demanding that children return to school.

The reason as presented by some of the adults in the room is a practical one. Schools are also used as daycares and if hiring a daycare provider for you children while you work is beyond your means then school is the next best thing.

So kickstarting the economy can’t really go into gear because who will take care of the kids if and when the parents or caregivers return to work?

The question preying on my mind in all of this is who the Hell sends their kids ( let’s face it, kids have personal hygiene habits that would make a monkey blush ) out into the world when there is a Pandemic raging unchecked across the country?

Well. Donald Trump for one and that shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Some of us have asked ourselves what kind of man imprisons, inflicts psychological torture on children and toddlers and causes irreparable harm to developing infants by throwing them into cages with express orders that they NOT BE TOUCHED OR COMFORTED AND WHEN THEY ARE IN DISTRESS…oh and it’s not the facilities fault if the children are sick or sexually abused.

Safe to say a monstrous person does that- the horror here is he happens to be President of The United States.

Donald Trump according to the book by his niece Mary Trump– who completed a Master’s Degree and holds a PH.D in Psychology- has made it clear that Trump- who has an unhealthy relationship to his eldest daughter and toxic relationships with his other children- is absolutely incapable -because of his own upbringing- of understanding the role that an adult holds in the lives of the children that they raise or are responsible for.

This man will send your children head first into the woodchipper because in his mind his goals, his wants, his needs are all that matters- this drive is literally hardwired into his brain.

From Mary Trump’s book we can glean how Trump may have come to the place where sacrificing and harming children means nothing to him.

The question is- knowing how Trump has treated the children he imprisoned, the treatment they suffer under, how he has treated his own flesh and blood…

what type of person agrees with him?

 

Selling canned goods from the White House…btw…go ahead and send your kids to school during a Pandemic, what have you got to lose?

 

Open Sez ME!

/ animar64 / 1 Comment

Fandango’s Provocative Question #68-Do you think it’s premature for states to be lifting the stay-at-home, shelter-in-place, and social distancing restrictions?

This is the face of the people who don’t care if they have the Coronavirus and can pass it on with fatal results to you, to your Grandma, to your neighbor’s  child with underlying health conditions, to their own family.

This is the face of  conservatives I know that have railed against ‘losing jobs’ even though, like some conservatives I know,  they were deemed essential workers. I was not deemed essential and I was out of work for a month. I didn’t go on screeds about it, I didn’t pout, I didn’t hump a gun. I got through it.

It goes without saying though, you don’t need to have a penis to ‘man up’.

This is the face of those ” Patriots ” that feel  the need to carry a gun to a protest in a government building where, if heaven forbid someone takes a shot, the police will not ask if you are a bad guy while you’re standing there with a gun in your hands before they make that decision on their own . Much like the Coronavirus there’s no telling how badly you will be affected by that decision until it hits you.

This is the face of  a person who I am supposed to listen to, whose views I should consider when it comes time to make the hard call about how far out there I am willing to go as things slowly open back up in my state.

This is the face of someone  who wants everybody  up and at ’em because he wants to go to bars and sporting events and whatever it is he FEELS like doing because who the hell are YOU to tell this ‘ Murican  no?

As my home state is slowly opening things back up, the people with this face in the picture above, will be glad to know that at the station where I catch my train there are people coughing and sneezing all over their fellow passengers because they don’t ‘do’ social distancing.  There are people who laugh at other people who are wearing masks because in their world view,mocking people who are wearing a mask shows you are a ” Patriot”

At this point, I might surprise you because I’m not a total negative nelly about easing restrictions.

I think we have learned some good tips on how to minimize our risk to catching the Coronavirus.

So. Sure. Let’s get on with our lives.

I would like you to keep this in mind:

I was going to work in Seattle during the height of the Coronavirus and in that time  I had a bug that tried to take me down back in February and I was out of sorts and not feeling well all the way into March.

If you don’t think that I’m still not worried that I was sick and could have passed that bug onto someone who it really hurt, then you have no soul my friend . It is totally absent from  your being.

As a favor because you are lacking in that department- let me give you a bit of advice.

You would look a little less like a self righteous tool if as you ‘take your life’ back, you remember the people who have died  a horrific and lonely death and quit bitching about how much it has inconvenienced you as you go about it.