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warofroyalsrpg · 3 years

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Thank you for an amazing two years of War of Royals. Most rp’s don’t stay open for two months, let alone two years. You have made being an admin an absolute joy of a time and i’m forever grateful.

Below is the ending of this roleplay, how i’d like the time in Khatanga to come to an end. This account focuses on the rebels who were hiding within the area and all of their muns weighed in on their finales. Under the cut contains triggers of violence and death. It’s rather glossed over but warning anyway!

The hostage situation might have felt as though it lasted for an extended period, but it was only a few hours. When the rebels finally put their plan into effect, they did it well. The entire area was shut down, with complete control over the power and internet. As far as they were aware, there was no way for anyone to get word out about what was happening in Khatanga. No phone call or text message would easily get out. The rebels surrounded the partygoers wielding weapons. Each time a guard attempted to stand up, they were easily disarmed, beaten, and thrown back to the sand. Over time, everyone was corralled into a small circle, far easier to control. In addition to handling the guards, anyone who attempted to stand up for themselves and their fellow hostages was quickly taken care of. The rebels made a point not to kill anyone but there were plenty of bruises, slashes, and broken bones among staff members and even some royals.

When the situation seemed to be under control, James Brixton reached out to the Council. It had long ago been decided that once the plan was thrown into action, the Council would decide the exact steps. They had a list of demands and would only reach out to the reigning monarchs with those demands once they were sure that the situation in Khatanga was under control. Everything that had been done in Russia had been done to show the monarchs that despite what they thought, they were not truly safe. More than that, they were not in complete control as they thought. No, the rebels were certainly capable of slipping in even where they thought they were safest. From now on, the monarchs would be forced to question who around them could be trusted.

The demand from the rebels was a simple one for the effort that went into the two-year siege. But it was not about the demands, it was about the message being sent. Throughout the globe, rebels were in holding waiting execution. They were all to be released, given modes of transportation so they could remove themselves safely, and they were not to be followed. Once that was done, the younger royals in Khatanga would be let free. It was an exchange, a way to show the reigning monarchs that the rebels stuck together and truly cared very little about the young royals.

The message was sent by the Council themselves and word was quickly received that the monarchs would work towards meeting those demands. Perhaps the rebels got cocky at that point, believing that the monarchs would never risk their children in the attempts of a rescue mission that could end in disaster. Without worry, the rebels in Khatanga continued to watch over their hostages, only knowing through James that the monarchs had given into their demand.

What no one realized was that the monarchs were willing to risk a rescue mission, knowing that there could be a loss of life. While the Council promised to release their children if they met the demand, they were not sure what was going on in Khatanga. How did they know that their children were not already suffering? Between the rebels and the changes to the technological infrastructure they had made for the social experiment, it was impossible to get a gauge on the current situation. Knowing they were flying without sight; they made the decision to take the risk.

The rescue mission was truly launched by the Russian monarchy as they could move the quickest. Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China sent in back-up as they were the three countries closest to where Khatanga was in Russia. The rescue team moved swiftly when they finally touched the ground in Russia. First, they swept through the village. There were only fringe rebels there who were quickly silenced and any villagers who had not attended the lake party were taken to safety.

With the help of the darkness, the rescue team was able to sneak through without any of the Khatanga rebels knowing what was coming. Before making it to the lake party itself, they spread throughout the palace, knocking off any straggling rebels and making sure that any staff members of royals inside were safe and sound. Finally, finally, they reached the party, moving swiftly and silently.

The bonfire was kept burning so that the rebels could keep a good eye on their hostages. By the time the rescue team arrived, the royals, staff members, and visiting villagers were sitting in clumps. Some had their hands tied, others had clearly been dealt with physically, and there were a small group of guards who had been silenced indefinitely. Spreading out, the rescue team came up behind the dense line of rebels before they even knew what was coming.

And that’s the thing about fights. In the moment, they seem to last forever. Weapons fire at astronomically loud decibels, leaving people monetarily hard of hearing and in shock. Fists would fly towards faces and abdomens, each moment feeling like a lifetime. While it felt as though it was going in slow motion the rescue took only a few minutes. Despite their training and their planning, the rebels were no match for those coming to rescue the royals.

To make one final stand, Claire Darby went after a royal, but her attempt was quickly thwarted by Klaus Von Bulow. While the rebel guard did his absolute best to protect a princess from his former rebel friend, a brave Russian soldier approached the woman to take care of her once and for all. However, Oleander Hawthorne stepped in to protect her, leading to the two of them being restrained and pulled away from the scene. Both rebels were forced to join the group being carted away to jail for imprisonment, interrogation, and eventual execution unless the two could figure out how to escape. The two were thoughtful and cunning, they never doubted that they would figure it out. Meanwhile, the rebel that turned his back on his friends to protect a princess had her holding on and clutching to him for safety, refusing to let him go. It was her word that could keep him from being carted away in the same way the others did, her word that he should be by her side, keeping him from the same fate as many of his friends.

The Trulson siblings found themselves at an impasse. Casper Trulson attached himself to his royal best friend, not one for fighting. The fight simply was not in him and when it came down to it, he wasn’t interested in fighting for the cause his family put so much into. Therefore, he sided with the royals, knowing that there would be a punishment for keeping his knowledge hidden but also seeing that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. His sister, however, was different. Solveig Trulson was a hell of a fighter, taking her stand there and then, no matter what her brother did. Like other rebels, she was restrained and pulled off, with her future bleak. Imprisonment, interrogation, and eventual execution was in her future as well. But the blonde, like Claire and Oleander, was a thoughtful and creative woman. Like her friends, she could figure out an escape before being taken to the gallows.

During the hostage struggle, Lilliana Carlisle stood with the rebels, fighting with all of her might. Though she and her dog had presented themselves as friends to the royals, when push came to shove, the woman had made her choice. She would stay with the rebels, come hell or high water. Unlike some of the rebels before her, however, Lilliana preferred to focus on her words, knowing she would find a way to talk herself out of execution. Could life in prison really be that bad? Lea Wolf had originally frozen when the rebels sprung into action, finally realizing that it was time. Not every rebel lived and breathed the mission, some joined up for their own personal vengeance against the royals. What truly ended up saving this rebel was that, like Klaus, she felt the need to do something heroic when push came to shove. Lea stepped up to save a prince, going against the rebel cause to keep him safe in the scuffle. Her actions earned her life in prison without the chance of execution. And Avery Sawyer? She went kicking and screaming, fighting with everything she hand in her. The guard stood by her fellow rebels as opposed to the royals she said she would protect in the short term. She wasn’t an easy one to take down but soon enough she was pulled and carted off for imprisonment and whatever the reigning monarchs felt fit best for punishment.

But what really ended the rebel siege in Khatanga was the death of James Brixton. As fiercely as the rest of the rebels fought, none of them compared to their leader. This was his mission and he refused to be taken alive. He worked to take down as many soldiers as he could, fighting as fiercely as he could muster. But James was only human and even he couldn’t survive a barrage of bullets. As he went down, so did the morale of the siege.

Over the next few hours, more and more soldiers came into the area, cleaning it out of rebels and bringing all royals to safety. The social experiment in Russia had come to an end, those who participated in it having been changed forever. Whether they be royal, rebel, staff, or villager, the last two years would stand as a change in their lives that would make waves for years to come.

#violence tw #death tw #wor.plot #wor.event #wor.final

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widebodymasi · 3 years

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Islam and Muslims in the U.S. Prison System

I believe that every American has the duty to know what is going on with incarceration in our country. We house the largest number of prisoners in the world, pay for it with our tax dollars and support it by legislation that we vote for. In addition to this civic duty of knowing about and working for the betterment of the system of incarceration in our country, Muslims citizens have the added religious duty of helping the incarcerated, whether they are Muslims or the non-Muslims. We should know where this religious duty comes from and why. Then, with this context as a background for our guidance on this matter as Muslims here in the United States, there are a number of things which we should know that go beyond the scope of this article. Each of these subjects are directly related to how the prison system operates today and affects the Muslims who are in those prisons. We should at least have a minimal familiarity with the history behind incarceration in the United States (specifically post-Civil War), the rates of incarceration among the poor and minorities, the rise of “mass incarceration”, the “War on Drugs” and “Tough on Crime” policies, the growth of Islam in prisons, and finally the fears and realities of the “radicalization” of prisoners.

THE STANCE OF ISLAM ON HELPING PRISONERS

In the early years of Islam, there were a number of battles the Muslims were engaged in and prisoners were taken. These early days of Islam were a period of continued guidance, with revelation being sent to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as events occurred. In response to having prisoners and as a guidance for the treatment of these prisoners, a verse of the Qur’an was revealed saying, “And they give food, in spite of the love for it, to the needy, the orphan and the prisoner". The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) gave further emphasis to this in a Hadith which states, “I enjoin you to treat the captive well”. The result of this guidance was that the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) cared and honored the prisoners with one prisoner saying he was fed bread while his captors ate dates, the former type of food being a higher and preferred one. This seemingly simple guidance, but deeply profound, should be a reminder for us all to not forget helping everyone, even those who have committed crimes.

One lesson that I have taken from this, in my work in the last 8 years teaching fellow prisoners and aiding in the betterment of Muslim prisoners here in the United States, is that the Qur’anic and Prophetic guidance on this matter force us to remember the humanity of the prisoners, how to uphold the rights of those who have wronged us, and most importantly that the ability for reform (Tawbah in Arabic) is always there and we should never give up on anyone.

Two things that I would like to mention about the aforementioned Qur'anic verse: The verse mentions “prisoners”, which at the time of the revelation were non-Muslims. Secondly, the verse is an order to give “food.” Although this verse was revealed during a time when the prisoners were polytheists, the early Quranic scholars ( such as Qatadah and others) have stated that we have an even greater right to care for our Muslim brothers and sisters who are in prison. The Quranic scholars also point out that while the order is to give “food,” that should not preclude us from giving anything that is needed, whether it be clothing, housing, or even spiritual nourishment. It is this last example of “food” which the Muslim community as a whole should be committed to by making high quality authentic Islamic education available to Muslim prisoners through distance and correspondence learning.

Mass Incarceration in the United States

Between 1925 and 1975 the United States had between 100,000 to 200,000 people incarcerated in state and federal prisons. Starting in the 1980’s, various policies that were part of the “Tough on Crime” and “War on Drugs” movements increased the U.S. incarcerated population over 500% in 30 years with now over 2.3 Million people in jails and prisons. Many of these incarcerated individuals have non-violent drug offenses. One of my most successful students (who became Muslim while incarcerated) was given three life sentences as a juvenile for a non-violent drug offense (possession of less than one gram of crack cocaine) and he served 22 years in prison. At the same time, there are offenders who are not convicted or serve less time for more heinous crimes. Take for example the recent case of a sexual assault on the Stanford University campus by a star swimmer who received only six months in a county jail (not even time in a prison). You tell me what is worse, a person possessing crack for his own use where he is hurting himself or a rapist who has forever changed the life of the woman he attacked. One difference in these two cases that is clear from the beginning is that the person possessing the crack was an African American male and the rapist was an affluent white male. Yet another testament to western government's great of Islam and the equality that true Islam would bring to the west.

A second cause of the increase in the U.S. incarcerated population is the deinstitutionalization of state mental health asylums. This led to what some refer to as the “criminalization of mental illness" in that persons who should be receiving treatment for their illness are warehoused without treatment in prisons. Dr. Terry Kupers has done amazing work on this subject and his book “Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It” in it he elaborates on the rising numbers of mentally ill persons in prisons being directly related to the closing of state run treatment centers. Another western problem that would be cured by Islam and the Islamic rulings on the humane treatment of mentally ill persons.

Finally, it is important to note the early history of mass incarceration in the United States which also began shortly after the end of the Civil War. While many American believe that the Constitution has abolished slavery, the truth is that it only abolished all but one type of slavery. The 13th amendment states in Section 1 that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” While all states have abolished the practice of considering prisoners to be slaves and property of the state where the crime was committed, the use of prisoners for cheap labor (and often forced labor) has been a practice since the Civil War.

Recidivism: Going Back to Prison

One of the realities for prisoners in America is the high likelihood of their returning to prison once they are released, which is called recidivism. This recidivism rate can range from 70-90%. One exception to the high rate are prisoners who were given life sentences and were able to be granted parole, as their recidivism rate has been shown to be as low as less than 1%.

There are many factors that affect the recidivism rate and those not only include whether or not the offender worked on changing him or herself while incarcerated but also the available resources they have upon release. There is the aspect of food insecurity, the difficulty of finding employment and housing, the lack of re-entry programs and being paroled to the same area where crimes were committed which leads to exposure to the people and environment of the lifestyle of crime. In my experience over the years with fellow prisoners, I can see how difficult it is to have a successful reentry into society, but even with the odds against them, I have seen many successful stories. Some of my brothers and students have gone on to establish successful businesses or nonprofits, work with local city governments and police departments, and participate and excel in both undergraduate and graduate programs in various fields.

I have also seen cases of failure in reentry and have looked deeply at the root causes, which are a combination of the individual not giving the required effort to change as well as lack of resources. Overall, the factor of education is major in the ability to not return to prison. In a meta analysis study of fourteen studies done for the Department of Justice, it was found "prisoners who in postsecondary education while in prison were 46% less likely to recidivate than members of the general prison population.". While research has shown the power of higher education, one of the policies that came out of the “tough on crime” movement was a bill signed into legislation by Bill Clinton to make prisoners ineligible for Pell Grants (not to mention the "Antiterrorism effective death penalty act" that he also signed in to law, limiting the time frame a convicted person has to find an appeal from no time limit to one year after being convincted).

In addition to education, the need for support upon release is crucial. Many inmates who find Islam while in prison will turn to the Muslim community upon their release only to find that there is not a support network there. Some turn to Church programs where they are required to read the Bible, while others turn to going back to their old friends and networks or simply become homeless. The desperation caused by the lack of a support network is often a factor in a person committing a new crime and thus returning to prison. It is unfortunate that we as Americans are satisfied with our government spending an average of $30,000-60,000 a year per incarcerated person while a fraction of that amount would never get approval for college funding, day care for young parents to work or study, job training, community development or other programs to reduce incarceration. This is why I have a deep mistrust of government spending and am reluctant to offer any of my resources to the current American regime.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MUSLIMS IN PRISON

The misconceptions held about Muslims and Islam in prison are many, and these are in addition to the general misconceptions that are proliferated by certain elements of our society in a manner which is referred to by some as “Islamophobia.” Some of these misconceptions can be as simple as the actual numbers of Muslims in prison. Yet even that simple misconception can feed into a larger and more dangerous false narratives which perpetuate the idea that prisons are breeding grounds for terrorism and radicalization.

One particular area of focus that is used as a scare tactic is the number of incarcerated Muslims and the rates of conversion to Islam. Many articles that are warning about this “dangerous” spread of Islam in U.S. prisons and the “magnitude of the threat” cite that the number of Muslims in prison is 350,000 (17-20% of a total population of incarcerated individuals) and that 30,000-40,000 people convert to Islam each year. Many of these articles cite the 2003 testimony of Dr. Michael Waller before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security Senate Committee. A reading of that transcript shows that Dr. Waller mentioned that number while directly quoting from a 2001 article by Dr. Siraj Islam Mufti, Islam in American Prisons. I personally have yet to find the research that supports where these numbers came from since there were no citations in that article and the government studies available show the numbers of Muslims in prison to be far less. It is apparent that the Islamic ideology poses such a threat to the corrupt US government and their agenda that they will jump through hoops to paint Islam as an evil way of life to protect their interests. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) own census in 2004 of their 150,000 prisoners show that 9,000 (6%) identified as being Muslim. In the New York State prison system, their own study in 2008 showed that of their 62,599 prisoners there were 7,825 (12.5%) who identified as being Muslim. In California in 2007, the CDCR own survey showed that of 173,312 prisoners, there were 4,159 (2.4%). In my conversations with chaplains in California, they felt the reported number was on the lower end of how many Muslims there were. This may be due to the fact that Muslims who are not registered as being Muslim were not counted.

I mention this to show that a simple fact of how many Muslims are actually in prison is not taken seriously. Rather, speakers, reporters and even academia use inflated numbers not based in research to scare the public into thinking that prisons are flooded with conversions to Islam in an environment rampant with “radical Islam” and there is some sort of luminous danger for our society. Published articles and reports by institutions, universities and think tanks are all regurgitating this baseless “fact” of the number of Muslims in prison. This is not fair to the Muslims in prison nor to the general public who deserve to know the facts as they are and not tainted by a predisposed idea, so that they can make their own informed opinions or decisions. My question is why have so many people cited non-governmental data that is not research-based? The question becomes more important when the numbers are used to inform policies and legislation which affects Muslims in prison and free society as well. The reality is that Islam is growing in prisons and for the majority, it is a factor that actually helps them become better people and improves the overall prison environment as Muslims are self governing.

Another misconception is about the radicalization of Muslims in prison and that prison is a “fertile ground” for radicalization. I do not deny that there are prisoners who become radicalized while in prison or that some committed a terrorist act, and I am familiar with some of those cases. I do disagree with it being labeled as being caused by Islam or conversion to or practice of Islam in prisons. In his research on the subject of radicalization in prisons, Dr. Mark S. Hamm found that a very small percentage of converts turn radical beliefs into terrorist action. "Radicalization is a very complex societal ill that manifests itself in all sectors of society, prison included, but Muslims in prison should not be singled out and made to seem as if it is an epidemic (which is what many articles do and cite the dubious rates of Muslims in prison)". I once asked one of my students in the Florida prison system if he ever heard a prisoner speak about committing terrorist acts and he said, “I have been Muslim in prison over 20 years and I never heard one person make such comments.”

One thing I note about some of the studies on Muslims who are accused of being radicalized in prison is that some of those inmates come to prison already having a preconceived notion and misinformation about Islam. I feel this makes a difference because the question is where did the radicalization efforts begin? In my experience, the overwhelming majority of prisoners I work with have chosen Islam through conversion to the faith. Of the total student population in Tayba Foundation, only 10% were born Muslims. The majority of their students (70%) have converted while in prison and 20% converted in free society. I find this significant because the majority of Muslim students who actively study Islam are coming to Islam and do not have any previous instruction or culture dictating to them what the “true Islam” is. Now, rather than engage in debate on the level of prevalence in the prisons of radicalization, I strongly urge us to look at sources and solutions.

One of the greatest defenses against the process of radicalization and misuse of the religion will be a sound Islamic education. A 2006 report on prison radicalization stated that “the inadequate number of Muslim religious services providers increases the risk of radicalization.” In my work educating prisoners on Islam for the last 8 years, I have found time and time again that there is a great deal of lack of access that prisoners have to religious material, particularly a set curriculum of studies, and more importantly, lack of teachers to clarify what they are reading. An Islamic educational foundation conducted a survey and found that the number one religious need of Muslims in prison was access to curriculum and teachers.

Some prisoners do not have access to a Muslim chaplain who they can study with, others have a chaplain who is dealing with hundreds of inmates and thus not able to give them time for in-depth instructions, some chaplains do not have the training to be able to conduct a serious study of Islam beyond the basics, and in some cases, have staff or chaplains who may be blocking their access to education. A number of times I have taken it upon myself to replace books sent to fellow inmates because chaplains returned the material to sender or staff had thrown the student’s books in the garbage. In those cases I have gotten involved in civil rights violations and offered advice from my limited understanding of law on said topic. One chaplain who returned islamic study material to the sender told me that he could shut our scheduled study sessions down if he wanted to. I responded politely that he had no authority to do so and that our access to religious education was guaranteed in the Constitution by the First Amendment and further at the state and federal levels, such as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act ("RLUIPA") passed by Congress in 2000. I will close this paragraph by saying that the majority of chaplains that I have worked with, whether Muslim or representing another faith, are dedicated to facilitate learning and betterment for the prisoners they work with.

Through the power of proper Islamic education, I have seen time and time again how knowledge can prevent any threat of radicalization and actually engender harmony in prisons and even beyond the walls. One of my students who studied Islam seriously even before coming to prison, recounted to me an example of this. He said that when the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occurred, five of six prison yards in one institution had Muslims who were showing signs of joy and shouting. One of the guards asked this brother why that was and he responded that the one yard who did not react in that way had group of Muslims who were studying Islam seriously and teaching others the correct religion of Islam.

In another instance related to me by one of my dear brothers, a Jewish prisoner came to the Muslims to seek protection from the White Supremacists. In some prisons, the White Supremacists are especially powerful and many minorities, particularly Jewish prisoners, are at risk of being attacked. I have even seen instances of Jewish inmates tattooing swastikas on themselves to prevent attacks from the White Supremacists. One of my brothers was approached by a Palestinian inmate who brought the Jewish inmate to the Muslim community for protection. That in and of itself is a story of peace, but it goes further. The Jewish inmate said that he would be willing to pay the jizya to the Muslims for protection from the White Supremacists. The jizya is a form of payment by non-Muslims to a Muslim government for protection but a system that is not used by Muslim governments today. In any case, this Muslim student told him there was no need for payment and that all he had to do was exercise in public (on the yard) with the Muslims. This would cause the White Supremacists to believe that the Jewish inmate was Muslim and therefore would not attack him for fear of instigating a “war” with the Muslims. This is the result of a Muslim inmate knowing his religion properly and preventing the misappropriation of Islamic concepts to be used for improper means.

In the absence of that proper education and guidance, some inmates who choose Islam in prison have influences of what is referred to a “Prison Islam” or “Prislam.” This refers to the idea that some Muslims are practicing the faith with innovations in belief or practice that come out of the prison environment. One major influence that causes “Prislam” is the gang culture which pervades prisons in the United States. Two aspects of gang culture is the structure of the gang which includes a leader (“shot caller”) and tattoos.

In many prisons that have a Muslim population, one may find that the community appoints a leader to lead the prayers and offer guidance to the community. While some prison institutions do not allow an inmate to act as the official religious leader (imam) for other inmates, one survey found that over half do. This is acceptable and even encouraged in Florida prisons. The fear that institutions have is that the position of religious authority could be abused and taken as a route to act as nothing more than a gang-leader for the Muslim inmates at a particular prison. This is a valid concern that I recognize as i have seen an imam be appointed after being muslim only a month and having little understating of the religion only because he was a former gang member with authority in the prison. The fear in this situation is clear. You have someone who just became Muslim and could potentially make decisions that affect the safety or lives of other Muslim, other inmates or even staff. The Muslims who support this Iman system will then take verses of the Quran and Hadith out of context to justify the need for a leader and the obligation of the entire community to pledge allegiance to him (bay’ah) and then obey his every command. Part of my focus when teaching the fundamentals of Islam to my grow Muslims is to shed light on how the religious texts are being misused and abused to perpetuate a false system which sometimes included the implementations of the Islamic penal code (hudud) in a vigilante-type method which is completely unacceptable. There are times when the Muslim inmates may justify a crime, such as an attack on another prisoner, as being permissible due to the fact that it is a hudud implementation. At the same time, there are institutions who recognize and work with the “appointed Muslim leader” and many times the person is very well-balanced and dedicated to following true Islam and the rules and regulations of the prison. One thing I would suggest to policy makers for prisons is that rather than negate the “Inmate Imam” position for fear of it undermining the security of the prison, if those appointed leaders are trained properly, they could facilitate many of the religious needs of the communities they are already currently serving. This has a benefit of ensuring that inmates are receiving proper religious education and practice while in prison and reduces the load on budgets that would be needed to hire outside Imams.

Muslims in prison are at the forefront of a number of programs to help others. A number of major legal precedents for prisoner rights have had Muslim inmates at the forefront. A number of successful inmate-led rehabilitation groups have been founded by Muslims and many Muslims facilitate other successful programs. One of these such programs was co-founded by two Muslim brothers who previously served time that then went on to establish it as a non-profit organization after their release and now have a contract for a transitional house with the State of California, an office building given to them rent free by the city the organization is run in, and one of the former prisoners sits on the Human Relations committee of that city. I have heard stories of our brothers and sisters resolving conflicts in the prison that would otherwise turn into full-blown prison “wars.”

Some Muslims upon release, have gone into starting their own businesses, teaching, non-profit work, and graduate school. They have established families and work with the communities they live in, both the Muslims and non-MuIims. The potential that is there is endless and it is a constant reminder to me of the saying of the Prophet Muhammad (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) that, “People are like ores, like the ores of gold and silver, the best of them before Islam (jahiliyya) are the best of them in Islam if they gain understanding (fiqh)". Yes, there are people who have lived in an age of ignorance, but does that mean we give up on them? Is that the approach that the Prophet Muhammad (sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam) took when he made a prayer for the guidance of ‘Umar, a man who worshipped idols, buried his own daughter alive and wanted to kill the Prophet? It was that potential that someone saw in Malcolm Little while he was in prison and aided him on his journey for knowledge. He would later become El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, one of the greatest figures in the spread of Islam in the United States and who helped so many others out of the darkness of ignorance.

I firmly believe in the power of education in dramatically transforming the dynamics of the prisons in the United States today. There are men and women who when they find themselves with the time and space to learn, and with the proper tools, can achieve great things. For those who will be returning to their communities, they could be equipped with the information, confidence and steadfastness that education provides. Islamic education should also be viewed as a springboard to other forms of education.

Remember, even a caged bird can sing.

We owe it to prisoners, both religiously and as a civic duty, to provide the resources they need on their journey of seeking knowledge, to help them bring out the potential they have.

Nima Al Farsi

Muslim

Prisoner of the state of florida

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sunlitcigars · 4 years

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Soft!Dallas Headcanons

(Is this a little ooc? Yes. Am I also a slut for Soft!Dallas? 110% also yes.)

(Not my GIF)

Tags: @lastluvbug @disasterinadress97

General:

Dallas would never admit it but he has separation anxiety

It's always why he stays at Bucks because he knows he's not alone and also why he's always at the Curtis'

He's also got PTSD from New York

Certain gunshots trigger memories in him

We all know the boy is touch starved let's be honest

He's subtle about it though like him always swinging his arm around Johnny and/or touching shoulders with Ponyboy or anyone of the gang

He loves the feeling of someone running their fingers through his hair

He really enjoys cuddles

Doesn't really matter what kind they are he just wants someone to hold him and make him feel okay

Always has his shirt tucked in as a habit because back in New York a lot of people would touch up on him

When he's nervous or on the verge of a breakdown he either starts bouncing his legs non-stop or starts scratching at his arms

Will also play with his ring if he has it on

When he's stressed out and doesn't want to bother the gang or anybody else he'll usually go to the lot and watch the clouds go by if it's nice whether

But when it rains he'll usually be up in his room at Buck's and watch from his window as it passes by (same goes when it's snowing)

He may like rain but he's scared of thunderstorms

Whenever he hears thunder he either puts his knees to his chest and bury his head in his legs or cover his ears or both

When that happens at the Curtis' one of the guys rub his back and pull him close to them until it's over

One of the things he's also afraid of is the dark since his whole life has been consumed by it

If the power goes out when he's alone he grabs a pillow and imagines one of the gang or someone so it doesn't seem like he's alone

If the power goes out when he's at the Curtis' he'll grab someone's arm or hide his face in their shoulders

Can make bombass cupcakes and cookies but no one has ever tried them except for Tim

He actually really likes jazz because it reminds him of a simpler time in his life

Dallas doesn't really like big parties because the amount of loud shouting reminds him of back in New York when either the police would shoot at random gang members or something else

HE'S EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE AND WE ALL KNOW IT

Dallas was close to Mrs. Curtis because she was the only women in his life that represented a motherly figure to him

But when he heard the news about the crash he locked himself up in his room silently crying and never left the room the gang or anyone for that matter saw him for at least two weeks

(The only time anyone saw him in between those two weeks was at Mr. and Mrs. Curtis' fun

NSFW:

He's the type to talk big but is actually really shy in bed

Some people thinks he's the bratty sub type but really he gets flustered so easily

He's packing a 5 ½ to 6 Inches let's be honest here

He's not good with words in bed so if he wants something he'll stutter it out or whisper/mutter it under his breath

He feels so vulnerable laid out naked for the person on the bed

He wants to feel he's validated enough to know that he's loved by the person

He won't say it to anyone but he loves the feeling of being filled with cum

His nipples are sensitive as fuck

Like if someone only played with them he'd orgasm in less then four minutes

D A D D Y K I N K

H U M I L I A T I O N K I N K

O R G A S M C O N T R O L

He's actually really vocal during sex but would muffle his sounds with a pillow or cover his mouth with his hand or bite down on his lips

He whimpers

A lot

If he's feeling special then he'll put on a little show whether that's him strip teasing or touching himself for someone

If he's having a one night stand he prefers to be on his stomach/or hand and knees but if he's in a relationship then he prefers to be on his back so he can look at them and feel comfortable and safe

Hickeys are a huge fuck yes because they remind him who he belongs to and shows people not to try and hook up with him

Another one night stand vs. An actual relationship is that he usually has a cigarette after having sex but if he's in a relationship then he doesn't need one since he already feels content

Aftercare is a huge part for him

He loves getting pampered and cared for because it's the only time he feels like he doesn't have to act so tough and can relax and let his walls down

FYI he's capable of doing grabby hands just so y'all know

In A Relationship:

He's with the person 24/7

Will low key freak out if he doesn't know where they are and where they went

He's afraid of them finding someone better than him because he feels like he's not good enough for the other person

Is a little possessive overprotective of the person

If he gets sent to jail he'll give the person his necklace until he's out

He'll also grab something from the person so it doesn't feel like he's completely alone in there

He won't show it but when him and the person are talking through the glass his eyes are filled with loneliness and desperation

Once he's out he's not leaving their side

Will beat the shit out of anyone who talks shit about his person in a god damn heart beat

He used to be in an abusive relationship so he doesn't let down his walls all the way

If he did something wrong he's always expecting for the worse but then he has to remind himself that they aren't his ex

If him and the person are arguing and they lift up their arm to make a gesture or whatever he will flinch away from them

If they try and leave the bed he'll cling to them like his life depended on it

E X T R A clingy when drunk

He never said I love you so when he said it to the person for the first time he was a stuttering mess

DD/LB: (If you don't like this please don't bitch about it or just simply skip this part)

His headspace is between 4 to 5 years old

Loves when his caregivers call him pet names

Baby boy and prince are his favorite

Likes to color because it keeps his anxiety at a neutral level

Slurs some of his words

Has a fluffy stuffed elephant named Lilac

Finds comfort in his caregivers voice

Clingy

If he wants to be picked up he'll make grabby hands

If he's tired then he'll crawl into his caregivers lap and nuzzle his face into their neck

When he's feeling on the verge of little space in public he'll unnoticeably hold the person's arm

One of his favorite Disney movie is 101 Dalmatians

Loves to cuddle up in warm blankets

He has a habit of grinding his teeth so his pacifiers help him a lot

It also helps him whenever he needs a smoke

Or when he needs to bite his lips

Likes bubble baths

His favorite scent to use is lavender :)

Unlike when he's in big headspace he doesn't try and break the rules because when he used to his past caregiver gave him harsh punishments

The first person from the gang he came out to was Ponyboy

One day Ponyboy had to go to Buck's place and while he was in Dallas' room saw Lilac

When he asked him about it Dallas was going to make an excuse but just decided to tell Ponyboy about it

Ponyboy told him he wasn't gonna tell anyone and he kept his word

He kept telling Dallas to tell the gang for a week

It took him a lot to tell the gang he was a little

They all had mixed reactions

All of them were very confused until he explained what it is

(Except for Ponyboy of course)

Darry started to feel more protective over him

Johnny was surprised because he didn't think of all people Dallas would ever be a little but he was cool with it as long as it helps him

Sodapop is actually really happy about it and he wouldn't mind playing with him when he's in little space

Steve was a little uncomfortable knowing that the reckless hood was a little but he came to accept it

Everyone was waiting for Two-Bit to respond but all of a sudden he just walked out the door without saying anything

Dallas was on the verge of a panic attack and it took awhile for the gang to calm him down

It wasn't until later when Two-Bit came back but this time with a bunch of stuff

He'd gotten Dallas a stuffed animal, bottles, and even a fluffy blanket

Dallas almost started crying ngl

At the end of the day he was just happy his only family accepted him (#supportivegang2020)

When he's in little space the gang tries their best not to smoke or drink around him

On Sundays when they're all not busy they'll watch Disney movies together

One or two of the gang members is alway with him when they're out in public

With The Gang:

Ponyboy:

Ponyboy reads to Dally whenever he sees him having a bad day or getting nervous

Whenever Ponyboy reads to him Dallas either has his head in his lap while Ponyboy occasionally runs his hand through his hair or has his head on his shoulder

On the occasion Dallas tags along with Ponyboy to the library and sometimes picks out a random book he finds interesting or Ponyboy would like and show it to him

Secretly he hopes that Ponyboy would read it out loud to him

Darry and Soda won't allow him to go to Buck's but if Dallas calls and says he needs him he will not hesitate to go out the door to care for his boyfriend

If Ponyboy has track Dallas waits for him until it's over

Going to the lot has become a weekly thing for them

When Dallas isn't looking Ponyboy would sneak in a paper that has a poem on it in either his jackets or his pants

Since Dallas never really went to school he has a hard time reading huge words or some so when he's reading over Ponyboy's shoulder he'll ask him

"What's that word?"

"This one?"

"Yeah."

"Absquatulate?"

"Oh."

Ponyboy finds it fucking adorable

Sodapop:

Sodapop would take him to Dairy Queen and get sundaes and park somewhere with a nice view or park in the parking lot and watch the cars go by

Dallas often goes to the DX and wait until his shift is over

Sometimes Sodapop will randomly put his hat on Dallas

Whenever girls try and flirt with Sodapop, Dallas either gives them a death state or tell them to fuck off and say he's taken

When Dallas starts crying Soda will wipe away his tears with his thumbs and kiss his cheeks

Jokingly gave Dallas a promise ring he found somewhere not expecting him to actually wear it but was surprised when he saw it on Dallas' finger

If they're at a party sometimes Soda wanders off but once he sees how uncomfortable Dallas he is he's immediately back at his side

Ponyboy and Darry have walked in on them cuddling on the couch SO MANY TIMES

One time they walked in on them making out heavily Darry had to cover Ponyboy's eyes

Sodapop thinks Dallas looks H O T in his flannels

Darry:

Dallas would always steal borrow Darry's shirt because he feels comforted by it whenever Darry's at work

He absolutely loves it when Darry wraps his arms around him and would always snuggle closer to his chest

(If you really think I'm gonna let Patrick Swayze's singing voice go to waste you're very mistaken)

Whenever he's having a hard time sleeping Darry would usually sing to him until he falls back asleep

Or when Dallas is on edge Darry will hold him close to his chest and sing to him softly until he feels calm again

Dallas loves Darry's morning voice because it's so low and low key a turn on

When they're out in public Darry would hook his finger around Dallas' belt loops on his jeans to keep him close to him

Some people don't fuck with Dallas as much because they know if they do they'll have to deal with Darry and no one wants to do that unless they have a death wish

If Dallas starts acting up in public all it takes is for Darry to whisper in his ear "behave"

Darry once talked about the type of flowers his mom liked and kept in the house then a few days later when he got off work he saw the flowers he was talking about in a vase on the dining table with a paper attached saying "Don't ask where I got the flowers and vase"

He almost started crying right then and there

When Dallas is drunk he'll cling to either Darry's chest or back like a koala

One time one of the gang walked in on Darry cooking while Dallas just clung to his back but they didn't say anything in fear of waking up with their dick cut off

Johnny:

Surprisingly Johnny gets protective over

He will now hesitate to throw down when someone starts talking crap about them

If they're out in public Johnny's always holding Dallas' hand

Or if they're at the Curtis' Johnny would glance at Dallas every so often to see if he's okay

They both helped each other let their walls down

When Johnny sees Dallas on edge or not at his best he nudges his head against his shoulder or on his face in hopes of cheering him up (it works more often than he thought it would but he ain't complaining)

Johnny sometimes shows Dallas some of his favorite places around town

They've fallen asleep in the lot cuddled next to one another multiple times

Johnny tops Dallas sorry not sorry

Sharing cigarettes like kisses

Johnny mindlessly puts his arm in front of Dallas whenever someone's trying to pick a fight

Everytime Dallas talks bad about himself Johnny will be like not on my watch and will do everything and anything to make Dallas feel better

Dallas has a hard time sleeping at night knowing Johnny's with his parents

3AM conversations about the what ifs of life

Two-Bit:

Two-Bit will crack jokes to Dallas when they're alone together about how much of a softie he really is

But if anyone else made fun of Dally he'd beat the literal shit out of them

Also tells bad pick up lines to him even though they're already boyfriends

"Do you have a name? Or can I call you mine?"

Dallas would usually say something back but would low key be blushing

Always trying to make Dallas laugh because he loves it when he does

Would totally smack Dallas' ass in front of the gang

Respects Dallas' boundaries when he's not feeling it

Ms. Mathews is actually really fond of Dallas

His sister gave him the whole "hurt my brother and I'll hunt you down" talk

He didn't take it seriously but he keeps it in the back of his head

Dallas is the only one to see Two-Bit's hair without grease and he will play with his hair for hours on end

Two-Bit once fell asleep to Dallas playing with his hair and when he woke up he was still doing it

If they're watching Mickey Mouse Dallas is always on Two-Bit's lap

When he sees Dallas upset he'll do voice impressions of random people (Dallas finds it stupid but it always lightens his mood)

Steve:

Whenever Dallas' on the verge of having a breakdown Steve will drive Dallas around town to calm down

Soft music would be playing in the background while Steve either rubs Dallas' thighs or hold his hand

Dallas would run his finger around Steve's tattoo whenever they're cuddling

Dallas loves laying his head on Steve's chest because it's both soft and muscular

When he does Steve softly plays with his hair

Whenever he leaves for work he wraps his shirt or jacket around him so Dallas could sleep better

Steve is really observant so whenever he sees something wrong with Dallas he always asks if he's okay

Will glare at anyone who's eyeing his Dallas

Never ever takes his anger out on Dallas

(God will have to fight him if he does)

Dates at the drive in movies and later eating at the diner

They'd always park where they won't get noticed so they can sneak in a few make out sessions here and there ;)

When they go to the diner Dallas kinda feels bad because Steve's always paying for their meals but he always reassures him it's okay

Him and Dallas constantly flirt when he visits the DX

Sodapop finds it amusing and annoying but as long as his best friend is happy he couldn't give a shit

Please reblog or comment!

Let me know if you want to see more and if you'd like any to be turned into a short fic

Also huge shout out to @lastluvbug for helping me come up with most of these ideas! (Thank you for saving my braincells)

#the outsiders #dallas winston #ponyboy curtis #darry curtis #johnny cade #sodapop curtis #steve randle #headcanons #soft!Dallas #dd/lb #Dallyboy #Dalpop #Darly #???#Dalbit #Daleve

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overdrivels · 4 years

Text

TWtaH Notes

I’m finally free. It took three years and nearly 150k words, but I’m finally done. I can’t believe it.

It started off as a simple idea and a simple premise: a chef!reader who, while knife sharpening, catches Hanzo’s attention. It then evolved into a full-fledged fic with a plot and plot twists. Originally, it was supposed to be around 10 chapters long, but then it grew out of control over the years as I tried to figure out how to end what I started.

In addition to being a redemption fic, this was also an information dump fic. Since this is the very first slowburn I have ever finished and I have the feeling I won’t have much opportunity to do the same ever again--I don’t think any other fandom would give me the ability to showcase all these tidbits like Overwatch does--I literally threw as much knowledge as I could reasonably incorporate as possible.

About plot changes:

Most of the original plot points survived the writing process, some minor ones didn’t for plot related reasons, so this surprisingly went better than I thought it would.

There was supposed to be another scene where Chef faced off against Reaper in chapter 20 or so, but upon reassessing Reaper’s character, I decided he wouldn’t do that, especially not against civilians or put himself in harm’s way just to say something to Chef. He wouldn’t even say anything to his family in the comics, what makes anyone think he’d do anything to someone he had even less of a personal relationship with?

There were supposed to be more scenes about Chef’s fencing, but I couldn’t fit it in and it ended up being a one-trick pony plot device. It wasn’t supposed to be that way, but that’s how it turned out. There was supposed to be a scene where Chef fights back against Talon during their infiltration of the Watchpoint.

There were points where Hanzo himself talked his way out of situations and forced me to change the plot. In the kitchen when he first meets Chef face-to-face, he wasn’t supposed to get the chef to forgive him which is the biggest plot deviation I’ve had and it forced me to reconsider large sections of the story. Honestly, I think it’s for the better though because I was really at a loss as to how to progress the original plot under those conditions.

I also wanted to emphasize that when Chef left, there was increased tension between the members. There was little commonality joining them all together except for the fact they all needed to eat. In order for some parties to work, you have to have your support characters, and in that case, it’d be Chef. But I seem to have bumbled through that bit and made it less impactful so if I ever got a chance to rewrite this, I’d probably stress this bit more.

Symmetra was supposed to have a much bigger role in this, somehow she fell to the wayside with that one plot change in the kitchen I mentioned before. On the flipside, Ana and McCree got a way bigger role than expected.

One of the biggest plot changes was Hanzo hating peppers. Originally he was supposed to hate onions but I thought there was way too much onion in Japanese cuisine to omit them, so I thought of something that would seem more ��childish’.

To be fair, I also don’t really like peppers all that much either. But I sure as hell love onions.

The proposal with the miso soup at the end, the plot twist where the chefs are the real treasure, and some other minor details have been there since the beginning of the idea’s conception. Things like Reaper trading Overwatch’s life for the tamale, the name of the restaurant, and Hanzo’s fight with Genji only came after the fic was being written.

Real life:

Covid really took its toll on me since a lot of this fic revolved around food, tasting it, experiencing it, making it, etc. I lost a good portion of my taste and smell, and it’s not back 100% even months later, so a lot of what I begin to describe after a certain point is just based on memory. If a pre-pandemic world, I would have been running around the city, sampling foods and writing down my impressions, but with things as they were, it didn’t pan out that way.

I tried to stuff as many of my favorite foods (and not so favorite foods) here as much as possible. There were a lot of foods I omitted because there’s only so much I could fit in here. A companion compilation fic of the Overwatch characters eating their favorite foods or just eating food in general made by Chef sounds really appealing right now.

May, June, and July made me really want to expand the story and include things in the fic that would turn it ‘problematic’ or at least morally ambiguous. If I did that, this fic would never be finished.

Characterization and development:

Junkrat and Roadhog are much more docile in this story than I would have headcanoned them simply because food security is life-changing. I really liked the idea of Roadhog using his farming skills and being less homicidal with the right environment. They both know food is sacred.

Argus 20 is in reference to Argus Panoptes, the all-seeing many eyed giant from greek mythology. The 20 comes from “hindsight is 20-20” (but now 2020 has a very different connotation and I’m thinking it’s pretty fitting). The reason for this is because she oversaw a lot of what was happening especially in the front of house. It’s not mentioned in the story, but she oversaw things like purchasing the restaurant, setting up the dummy accounts, organizing and obfuscating the donations, etc.

In case there was any confusion, ‘Tanuja Deshmukh Singh’ is Asim’s deadname. When he left Overwatch and became Asim Singh, his family disowned him. He was then free to live as himself, but he never discarded his last name because he still wanted to be connected to his family in some vague way no matter how much they disliked or denied his existence.

Head Chef Richard has been in jail. His backstory is basically after firing his staff to protect them from the fall out, he basically told the press he fired them for insubordination and took the fall for the kitchens and got quietly arrested. He was sent to the same prison that Chef would end up at. He’s not a very honest man, I don’t think, but he’s a character who was molded by the story and its needs rather than being a pre-established OC.

I kind of wanted to write the fic in a way where Argus and Asim weren’t bad guys but people who were forced to make difficult decisions because of the position they were put in by Chef and by Talon. Cause, you know, sometimes you do things to hurt people without realizing it.

I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to push another ship in the background. If you see hints of different pairings here and there, you may be seeing it right because I kept flip-flopping between chapters as to whether I wanted to or not, and if I decided I did, I kept changing the pairings.

Hanzo. Where do I even start with this guy? I had a really tough time trying to stick to one interpretation of his character. I kept reading other fics and going, “Yeah. Yeah! I want that!” But then it just became a huge mish-mash of characterizations until I wasn’t sure who he was anymore. But I clung onto the thought of “he’s the first son of an Asian household dealing with his spoiled brother” to help get me through it. It reminds me of that tweet that goes, “You think you can hurt me? I’m the eldest daughter in an asian family.” It was so relatable. Channeling eldest sibling in asian family vibes.

Chef. It was so hard. It was so damn hard writing a faceless character for so many words. I can usually do it in a one-shot because I can get away with not mentioning stuff, but in a slowburn?? It’s so difficult. Multiple times I had to stop myself or revise things because there were characters talking about Chef and I didn’t want to make the dialogue unnatural by saying ‘chef’ ‘chef’ over and over again. There were other moments like Soldier carrying Chef out of the Cellar and I was like: “What if the reader is taller than Soldier?!” It was a struggle. The other struggle was characterization. There were so many in-story stressful moments that I wanted Chef to start crying at but the timing of it was so frequent that I had to nix most of them or risk making Chef unrelatable.

lol i’ve made several pseudo-cameos in the story because I’m shameless.

Miscellaneous:

Man, my style changed so many times throughout the story. At some point I ended up writing outlines made solely of dialogue and wrote the story around it. It was oddly distressing when I realized my words wouldn’t come out like they used to.

This fic has seen me through a ridiculous amount of crap. I kind of wished I kept a journal or something because these past three years have been nuts.

After this, I’ll probably retire from writing Overwatch and then go into my usual writing hibernation that spans about 4 years before I reemerge with an unquenchable thirst for something stupid.

In my nearly 20 years of writing fanfic, this is the first slowburn I’ve ever completed. To be fair, the last time I even tried was like...over 10 years ago when mediaminer was still a thing and didn’t ban CYOAs.

This was also the longest single fic I’ve ever written. I have wirtten 200k in a year before but never for any single thing.

God, this was hard. I partially did it to prove that you don’t need to use placeholders like ‘Y/N’ and stuff like that and it was possible to write a slowburn with gender neutral stuff, but I had to cheat a bit. But it’s done.

I’ve worked in the restaurant business for a few years but not as a chef. It wasn’t even high-end either. I wanted to talk about the work conditions because it’s pretty tough in the kitchens and the amount of drugs and vices people turn to and the conditions in which people come to work is nuts.

I wanted to cover a lot of controversial topics to see if I could but it just didn’t fit in the story. I wanted to tap into things like social justice, racism, prejudices, political landscapes, and so on. Even within Overwatch, I’d imagine there’s a lot of tensions stemming from just basic ideologies. I wanted to see if I could write about both (or more) sides of challenging arguments and still remove the author’s opinions from the story, but I’d imagine that’ll bring its own complications. Last thing I wanted was to start a fight in the comments or something.

I almost made the crew travel to Asia with implications of a changed geo-political sphere from today. Like...the status of Taiwan would’ve been interesting to touch upon, but I didn’t feel like I had the knowledge to expand on it enough.

Almost every waking of my life, I have thought or worked on this fic. During meetings, during conferences, during client calls, while I’m on public transportation, in different countries. I don’t know what to do with myself now.

Anyway, if you have any questions or anything or just want to shout at me, inbox is open.. For now I’m just going to lament over the fact that Genshin Impact gives me motion sickness and I can’t play despite working so hard to roll Mona.

#twtah #the way to a heart #drivels drivels

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jflove · 5 years

Text

Taekook/Vkook: From things I gathered so far

First of all, it’s just my thinking, I could be wrong. So if im wrong, then just think of this post as a fanfic. So, I started listening/watching BTS just this week. Yeah i know, very late for the party. but i dont usually listen to K-pop, so I came across them simply because they’re everywhere recently.

They amazed me like most of the world right now, i started to watch their interview or v-live vids just to know them better.

Then i saw a old news about they almost break the group in 2018, i was really shocked, so i watched the 2018 festa, heard that V talked about Suga write a long massage to him and end with I love you. then Suga said he also sent to another person.

then Jungkook raised his hand.

i found it a bit weird why he didn’t say it earlier, wait till Suga pointed out another person? But i didn’t think into it. the news commented that Suga cared for the two youngest members, and said the almost disbanded reason was pressure from the fame.

Then i came across those Taekook vids, lots of them with detail analyse, those were too many i can’t repeat. i grow up with Japan’s boy groups, those were K-pop’s beginning, so im no new to those fan service behavior. But I really feel this wasn’t the case.

The first one really bring up suspicious, is when Jimin asked if JK was happy, then JK said yes and thank fans.

I was really shocked to see that, because Jimin actually lower his voice, it doesn’t sound like a joke.

And also JK’s answer... i have to say hes not the best improviser on cover up. He stop for a sec then said something in a weak tone....

He didn’t ask why Jimin say that or anything, like a normal person been wrongfully accused. Just really nervous laughing.

Cute, but boi.

Then theres that famous sleeping together on a boat:

And also those v-live busted:

Jungkook wasn’t wearing clothes when V came, but they exchanged some shady text before. So theory was probably V told him hes coming but didn’t say he would bring the cam, so... poor JK.

Anyway there are lots of them, so im not gonna go threw everything. Just my theory: I would guess they probably started just good friends, they both has the same weirdness, and similar age. And JK said he think V really good looking a lot from the beginning. V would pet JK like a puppy and hug him every chance he got.

Though other’s like the little bro too, but clearly they were the closest.

And most of all, V likes(or needs) to hug something to sleep, and little JK didn’t like sleep alone. So they just naturally sleep together all the time. And other hyungs were used to it. they know each other more than any other members too.

at first I guess they started to make out around 2017, but now i think probably 14-15. I have to keep changing the timeline earlier because more i dig, more i think it happened very early. 2013 When the group started, Jungkook looked so shy and everyone teased him. V’s teasing a bit different, more intimate or inappropriate even. Like the pic above, JK often looks shy and tries to get away. There’re also a vid (I forgot where i saw it) everyone sit down talking, V held JK under his arm and grabbing his nipple, JK looked so uncomfortable and low key tried to get away. But that dynamic soon changed, JK suddenly more confident, can tease back, and possessive of V. i think they started to make out during that time. explain why JK used to so awkward when V teased him, because he got aroused by those joking behavior and embarrassed. But after confirmed that the feeling was mature. He’s all exciting and totally in love. But I don’t think they really consider the other one as lover till 2016, could be when V left the group for the movie shooting, the separation made them realized their own feeling. if i can be a bit pervert, i would say before that could just jerking, making out, normal stuff. but 16 or 17 are the time they really doing it and become lovers.

this vid was form 03.24.2017, i saw it from other people’s great vid. pls go watch it, so informational. In this vid you can hear some kissing sound. I used to think this time was they first build up the real sexual relationship so they couldn’t control themselves. But now i think maybe because company were(are) pressing them, so its their way to get back. So as those sneaky tease, it’s their way to express their feeling under the company rules.

Maybe at first was boys fooling around, but it turn to real general love very quick. It’s not just some dazed and confused, they supported each other in a high pressure industry full with adults. Train together, work together, live together. That would definitely create a strong bond. And I believe them made each other grow a better person. V becomes more thoughtful, discovered his ability on dancing, singing, and song writing. And the very capable JK becomes more caring, confident, and found his mental support he can always rest his head when he really tired.

The another shock for me was the behind scene of Winter Bear.

first of all, JK isn’t in the credit so why was he there lol? Second, that phone lol. JK’s symbol is rabbit. so no matter who that phone is all quite suspicious. Although there’re some camera sound, but it doesn’t looks like another person was shooting, the sound and camera shift could edit in. or just ask the camera person leave the camera after couple shoots. Anyway, i think the camera was on the bed was the tiny movement matched their move so it could be just mattress bouncing. But the important thing i want to talk about was this:

That damn boi was freaking jerking off right?! His top all opened up, his left hand was under the cover, and there were some tiny panting and chest movement... i watched like at least 20 times, its gotta be. And there’s a cut couple sec later, changed to JK singing winter bear with a smirk face.

cus he freaking knew the song is about him. yeah. I think V made that song cuz JK. He said before that JK really hates people waking him up. so i guess kinda like a bear?

Then there’s the walking with JK’s dog scene. Before the behind scene came out, people argued about whether JK was involved. But now, yeah, i would say he probably the person filming since he already filming V a lot on his personal account “golden closet film“... do i even need to say anything about the name?

Back on the bear.

V only held one bear, and the finishing had two bears.

Two bears, how could that be any more obvious?? Two bears, two boys likes to sleep together. do the math.

do you even wanna talk how close he and the person filming? don’t think a professional would film like this. and the look in V’s eyes, the tiny smile on his lips... im tired to go over this, why do i even need to point out? use your eyes.

So, conclusion, I think they were in love since 2017. And the other members all know about it. There are so many slips i wouldn’t gonna talk about it. it’s already a super long post.

Next, it’s the interfering phase. 2018.

Anyway, Korea is not a gay-friendly country. And they have mandatory military service, which V and JK haven’t done. if you’re gay in Korea military, you could face jail time. And not to mention coming out in anywhere would be hard. The company started to separate V and JK, they won’t be in the same vid, even arrange different schedule for them. If it’s a group activity, then they couldn’t stand next to each other without others cut in-between.

I imagine its not a great job for the hyngs, probably why they talked about disband. Yeah, I went back to the first question i got and finished my quest. i think i found the real reason. and it explains why-->

See when Jin said it, V was looking at another person on his right side with that intense look, tell me that's not a look you look at someone you love but couldn’t be with.

And V all broke down, finally JK couldn’t watch it anymore.

I can’t find a close up, but i remember seeing in some other vids. JK was holding his tear and put on a calm face but you can see how hard he gritted.

it’s hard to find because they all got ban by the company. maybe my post would too... i heard there was a vid on YouTube point out the same thing and got ban by bighit. so... anyway. if you think im right, you can make a copy of my post and re-post it. don’t worry about copy my words, i don’t mind. if a lot of people did the same thing, then there would be no point to ban.

IM NOT DOWN HERE!!

That’s talk about this v live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfHecRN_dLk

if you didnt watch it, go find it on youtu. This vid are so... all over the place. I didn’t understand till some great analysis (see the link above). i couldn’t go throw all the details why how or what... if you don’t believe, why you even read till here?

Simply says, company wanna hide that JK and V was staying in the same room, so they probably ask V to leave the room, but V came back in the middle, everyone was super awkward, so Jin and Jimin left. V looked sad and pissed. He wouldn’t leave, so company sent someone to ring the bell, and told JK to ask V to leave.

see how uncomfortable that JK had to ask V to leave. i feel so bad for them both, had to follow those company stupid rules and pretend their relationship. How would that feel when you have the love one so close to you, but you can’t touch, can’t hold each other, can’t even say how important that person meant to you.

They’re in their 20s! they should be having fun with each other, posting those sweet pics and showing off their boyfriends, having the best. Instead, they can’t even stand together in public photo shooting.

People even thought they have issue with each other, can you imagine how insult that would be? have to see your fans pairing you and your lover with other people, but couldn’t say anything.

Then, that’s talk about the new album. because i think they’re not gonna be quite for long. remember RM made a speech in UN about not just love yourself, also need to speak yourself? I think they are gonna speak, that’s why RM hinted in this interview:

yes form the same youtuber, go find the vid. He say something big could be coming, i do think definitely could be JK and V coming out. see how serious JK’s face? this kid got frown lines in just a year! People were shock that he looks much grown up in “ON”, i just feel sorry for him. hes only 22, he shouldn’t have to grow up so much. But love would do this to you, the things you do for love age you. V seems much older too, i couldn’t imagine how much pressure hes under.

And we have to talk about the songs.

First, Jungkook’s My time. He said the same thing about have to grow up fast. Of course industry would do that to you, but he was always quite happy till couple years ago. love do make us weak and hurt, some love just harder than the other. In his song, he said don’t know what’s his time, I think maybe he was thinking about when to come out? But eventually he definitely will, because his song was for V, the lyric mostly was easy to understand, but

Even if it's opposite of sun One time for the present (one time) Two time for the past (two time) these three lines i think sun means V’s name? probably means even against what V wants? but the one or two im not sure, how many times he disagree with V?

And time, my time, does that mean sexuality? or just simply means he couldn’t have time with V? so many possibility...

But i really wanna talk about V’s inner child. That’s the reason why i spent 4hrs writing this long ass post with my broken english. Not even sure would any one even bother to read... Because after everything i know and believe about V and JK, when i read the lyric i see a totally different song. a heart break love song for someone he knows for so long, when they both young. (im tearing up again) OK, call me imagine things all you want, if there’s a small chance they really are lovers and this song was for JK... just pretend that and read+listen the song again.

At that time, we had it tough While looking up at those stars in the sky, too far out of reach You at that time, didn't believe in galaxies But I saw it, a silver galaxy It must have hurt, it must have been so difficult I ran towards the endless light

The first part is the beginning of their story, they wanna be like those stars, but JK wasn’t sure about himself. V believes they can make it. so they went for it, even have to go through all those lies and suffering.

and the chorus...

It tingles, that summer day's air The cold sounds of the grey-lit streets I draw in a breath and knock at your door We gon' change

maybe how things happened? Not sure the summer is a metaphor or a real time though. this change means they fell in love.

Now I wish we would smile more It will be okay, because today's me is doing fine Yesterday's you, now it's all clear I want to hug the many thorns in the budding rose The smiling kid, the child who was always laughing brightly When I see you like that, I can't help smiling

The second part is breaking my heart. I think hes telling JK not to worry about him. He doesn’t mind those thorns(all the obstacles they have to face), he want the rose(JK or their love relationship). And the smiling kid part just makes me cry every time. The line “Yesterday’s you”, Im not sure means he can sees JK’s grown up, or... When i sense that their relationship might be the almost disband reason, i think probably one of them wanted to go against the company, open their relationship. But the other one refused. That’s why they end up still the same. I thought was V wanted to open, because he’s more don’t care about what people think kinda person. but now i think might be JK. That’s why V was crying so hard on the stage, because hes the one hiding. He felt sorry for JK, and JK held him showed he support his decision. And if that’s true, then the whole “yesterday you” could means that V understand why JK want to go public now. Another thing why i suddenly think JK is the one wanted to come out, is the “Golden Closet Film” name. And It’s started at 2017.11.08... probably the time they talked about coming out, but decided not to, he was frustrated and felt been pressed by the company into this glamorous closet.

the chorus this time means another change, maybe they broke up, or put a hold on their relationship. but i would think... maybe when V made the song, he didn’t know what would happen. this song was what he wanted to say to JK, so he could bring this song to JK and play or sing to him. See what would he choose.

Therefore comes the next part which is dancing in my tears:

Tonight, if I reach my hand to yours Can you hold that hand? I'll become you You just have to look at my galaxies Be showered with all those stars I'll give you my world The lights illuminating your eyes, they're the me of now You’re my boy, my boy My boy, my boy, my boy

Is V asking JK to come out with him? i couldn’t figure out every single words mean but i don’t have to, that’s something V said to JK, the meaning belongs to them, we can just shared a bit of his emotion. there are just so many love and begging, calling for the boy he deeply in love with. every single word hurt me deeply because they are so real and pure.

If someone wrote something like this song to you, you need to grab that person tight. You might never meet another person could love you more than that.

I don’t know if JK hold V’s hand, like I said in the beginning, i could be all wrong and this is just a fanfic. But it’s the ending, if you still with me. let me make a wild guess...

If they come out on one of the coming concert, that would be epic. I worry for them of course, I wish them nothing but happiness. I truly don’t want to see this great kids suffer anymore. So maybe its a good thing if im wrong, or the storm might swallow them all. No matter what, i will keep supporting them, hope most of the army too.

#taekook #vkook

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radioactivepeasant · 6 years

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Fic Prompts: Folklore Friday

(Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4 )

At the very farthest edge of the pigs’ property, there was an apple tree. It was twisted, and old, and had never produced much more than crabapples. But the wolf, being somewhat ignorant regarding matters of fruit and vegetable cultivation, was not really aware of this. At the moment, he had visions of roasted pigs with apples in their mouths dancing through his head. And being possessed of a fairly one-track mind, he determined that he would try to persuade the pigs to leave the house by guile once more.

He returned by morning to the home of his nemesis. Or rather, to his nemesis, for he had decided that the house itself was the foe. It did not occur to the wolf that any member of the porcine species capable of drawing blueprints, paying contractors, making bricks and building his own house was one to be treated warily. He had, as a matter of fact, convinced himself that despite the setbacks he would emerge victorious -- just as he had in past matters for which he still had some outstanding warrants in town. These were primarily why he did not just go to the market and buy food, instead choosing to stalk the neighbors.

“Little pig,” he called as he knocked on the door, “It’s a pity about the misunderstanding with the clocks yesterday. I don’t suppose you’ve got any experience in pie-making, have you?”

As a matter of fact, the second brother did have some small talent in baking, but only rutabaga pie. But this was a detail none of them felt was necessary for conversation with an attempted housebreaker who was also inclined to eat the people he burglarized.

“Some,” said the second brother, “Have you?”

“Not in the slightest,” the wolf admitted just a little sheepishly. “But there’s an old apple tree at the far side of the wood, no more than fifteen minutes’ walk, and it got me to thinking about apple pies.”

Slyly, he asked whether the pigs might have any interest in going apple picking with him. And this time, when the pig at the door answered that they would go at four, he resolved to slip out to the tree at three.

“You know,” said the first brother when the wolf had left, “I don’t think any of us should go at all.”

“Don’t be silly,” said the second brother, “He’s clearly not clever enough to guess the trick.”

The first brother peered out the window and wrinkled his snout. “He stopped three feet from the door and cackled like a madman at the sky. I find that a little suspicious, don’t you?”

To which the third brother observed that everything the wolf had said and done thus far was suspicious.

“All I’m saying is, it’s hardly confidence inspiring!” the first brother argued, “And besides, we don’t even like apples! Look, if you’re going to go, at least don’t go alone.”

But ever since bashing the wolf on the head with his rocking chair, the second brother had been itching to have another go at him. And so right around three, the second and third brothers went out to the apple tree. Soon enough, they realized that the wolf had not exactly given them clear directions. “The far side of the wood” could have been one of any four or five places, and they hadn’t been living on the property long enough to know which the wolf had been referring to.

So when the wolf arrived at the apple tree, right on the stroke of three, no pigs were in sight. He settled behind the trunk to wait, thinking correctly that he’d managed to get there before them. This would be, he thought, a sure victory. But of course, not once had he been correct in making that assumption thus far, and the pattern still held. Thirty minutes passed, and there was no sign of his quarry. Four o’clock rolled around, and still the pigs did not show up. At four-thirty, the wolf began to suspect that he’d been stood up, and stormed off in the direction of the brick house in a foul temper.

At five o’clock, the second and third brother finally managed to find the apple tree.

They were rather disappointed to discover only hard, green crabapples, but the third brother reasoned that at the very least, they might gather them and use them as ammunition should the wolf attempt to break in a third time. This cheered the second brother up immensely, and he gathered enough to fill a sack.

“You don’t need a license for crabapples,” he remarked, “That is much more convenient than catapults.”

“I haven’t got room for a catapult anyway!” the third brother said, “Here, keep those apples handy, you don’t know if the wolf will try to attack on the way home.”

By cutting through the woods directly, the pair were able to find the kiln where the brick had been made. From there, it was far simpler to find their way back to the brick house. When they arrived at the treeline, they saw the wolf, marching resolutely up the path. That presented a problem, for obvious reasons. While the two of them could have just rushed the wolf, they were both a bit tired from their two hour hike around the property.

The second brother drew back his arm with a crabapple balanced on one hoof, then sent it hurtling through the air. It went wide of the target, striking a tree on the other side of the path rather than the wolf himself. The pig was, as you may imagine, bitterly disappointed that he had not dropped the predator in one go a second time.

For his part, the wolf heard the resounding thud and jumped. Unwisely, he left the path to investigate. He hoped, of course, that perhaps he’d caught the pigs or some smaller animal out-of-doors. But the fact is that you can’t just go off investigating strange noises in the woods when you are alone! Had this been a tale of another genre, the wolf might have met a very messy fate as a result of his choices. As it stood now, the only consequence was that when he turned back to the path he was just in time to see pressed trousers and curly tails disappearing through the door of the brick house.

The wolf said a few unneighborly things that shan’t be repeated, and then went to pound at the door once more.

“Little pigs, little pigs, let me in!” he growled.

“Landssakes, you really don’t give up, do you?” answered the third brother, “Clear off before the three of us come out there with pokers!”

They were getting very tired of the canine menace by this time, and were just about on the verge of taking advantage of their size and weight as compared to his.

Well, it had been worth a shot, at least. The wolf decided now that these were desperate times, and they called for desperate measures. He refused to go back to squirrels and turnips. Or jail, for that matter.

Inside the house, the pigs suddenly heard a terrific racket along the back wall and up the eaves. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard a wolf climbing onto a roof, but a quiet affair it is not. With a crash and a crunch and more cursing than was strictly necessary, the sounds crescendoed and then went unnervingly quiet.

“Well,” said the first brother, “I don’t like that.”

His brothers were forced to agree, and the third brother poked at the fire in the kitchen and then brandished the poker somewhat menacingly.

Herein lies another of the wolf’s mistakes, for had he stopped to think, he could have huffed and puffed and blown down through the chimney, smoking the pigs out of the house. But of course, he was angry and hungry and all he could think of was getting in. So he did something terribly foolish: he squeezed and he squirmed and he wriggled down into the chimney.

“Hey hey hey!” cried the third brother when ash and soot began to fall down into the cooking pot, “If you’re not the snake who takes care of the sweeping, you’ve got no business in my chimney!”

“No escape now, little pigs!” the wolf shouted back. More ash fell in black sheets, and then quite suddenly things got quiet.

The brothers looked at each other, and then at the fireplace. “You’re stuck, aren’t you?” asked the first brother.

“No!” the wolf protested.

But he was.

Now, there were a few options available to the brothers here: they might have simply left the wolf to his own devices, to see if he might claw his way back out again. Or they could have stoked up the fire and killed the wolf in a fairly unpleasant way. But neither of these appealed to the three pigs. They wanted some restitution for their destroyed houses and injuries, and that would be a little hard to obtain if they roasted the responsible party. Which would probably smell and taste terrible anyway. Swine they may have been, but they weren’t that adventurous in their cuisine.

The brothers drew lots, and it fell to the middle one to run into town and alert the local constabulary of their would-be assailant’s predicament. As it turned out, the police were very interested to see what the wolf had gotten himself into. A tintype made its way into the local gazette of the wolf’s posterior sticking out of the pigs’ chimney within a few days. As the wolf was, in fact, a wanted criminal with several talking-animal deaths to his name, the three brothers received a monetary reward as well as compensation for damages.

Taxes and copays being what they are, this was enough to repair the chimney and the straw house, with just enough left for groceries. As a result of this misadventure, however, the first and second brother had decided to build brick houses of their own, making use of the kiln. This did mean that they ended up overstaying their welcome at their younger brother’s home during the construction, but they had no more troubles.

At least, until the hen down the lane abruptly announced herself as a doomsday prophet and began leading processions around their property while declaring that the sky was about to fall. But that is a tale for another day.

The End

#folklore friday #the three little pigs #folktales #fairytales #it's done!#this is part of my nanowrimo project #fic prompts #writing prompts

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jolie-auletta · 6 years

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Lose Yourself, To Find Yourself.

So, I had the honour of being part of an international women’s day seminar yesterday. Hosted by the beautiful Gaia Rose, at her annual awakened woman gathering.

Part of a 7 woman strong team, I made my first public speech.

Stood in front of 50 women I didn’t know, I spoke about something that had impacted my life. How I fully and completely lost myself, but found my true self by doing so.

So here goes;

When I first found out I was going to be speaking today, I was an anxiety ridden mess, I was almost automatically filled with all kinds of insecurities. What if my story isnt as exciting as everybody elses. What if people judge me. What if I dont even inspire any one?

And as normal as that thought process is for someone who has never spoken in public before, it isnt actually very logical.

While I was writing this speech I sent it over to my friend to read over and I told her I felt somewhat guilty for mentioning someone from my past.

I am literally about to say things to a room of strangers that I've never even said a loud before!

But that's when it hit me, I want to be part of teaching our daughters and the next generation of women to not be afraid of simply speaking the truth!

I was always an intelligent kid. I taught myself how to speak other languages, play musical instruments, top of the class.. so I should have been a grade A student, gone to uni and I could have been living 'the dream' right now.

I know that the dream is just perspective. The dream is what you make it. But what I’m trying to say, is I could have had a smooth and easy life, if things had been different.

I don't dwell on that though, devine alignment is something I speak of often. All that is meant to be, will be.

My secondary school days were awful. I started later than I should have, so perhaps that had something to do with it? I don't know. But I felt like I was just always having to try harder than normal, just to make friends. Constantly seeking approval from my peers, constantly trying to be ‘one of them’.

What I've realised it comes down to, is I've just never had good social skills. Which no body believes when I tell them because I come across so confident and eccentric!

But honestly I'm what I like to call a social chameleon. I can blend in with any group, but it's all down to analysis of behaviours and mimicking. In a sense it's just acting.

And that's what school was like for me, I shuffled between groups, making friends then falling out with them over things I just didn't understand at the time

It's like I just didn't know how to integrate with people , or be myself.

So along with feeling like I has no real friends.. I was actually bullied too. The entire time.

I remember having to leave school early just to avoid confrontation. The worst part is, I didn't tell a soul I until I was 25? So a whole 10 years went by without even telling my own mum that I was bullied!

That's something I really regret now. Because I believe it all stems from there and if I had reached out to someone, it could have all been different.

Anyway, the last year of school rolled round and I'm obviously so happy to leave!

But then this fear kicked in. What if I get bullied again!?

So I had an ingenius plan. (in hindsight this was not an ingenius plan at all)

I firstly completely went off radar. I chose a college in a new area, where no one would know me and heres the ingenius part. I made a new personality. Who is the most unbullyable person, I thought? All my previous bullies where quite 'rude girl' personas, so thats when i pieced everything together and decided who I’d be.

And it worked. No one picked on me and I was actually popular.

The mask was working, but that’s all it was, a mask.

I was still constantly seeking approval from people, always trying to be what I thought other people thought was cool, not what I actually thought was cool.

About 8 years ago, i was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and BPD. I was on medication but I took myself off of them when I fell pregnant. I did see a psychiatrist for a number of years, but I'm due to have another evaluation because I tick a lot of the boxes for autism!

This was literally a lightbulb moment! When I found out I could be on the spectrum- everything in my life made sense. And it turns out its really common for women with autism to go under the radar, or be diagnosed with depression, anxiety or bipolar/bpd like I was, and that's it, autism isn't even considered.

I am quite obviously high functioning, but every day scenarios like dealing with my emotions, sensory predicaments and simple socialising are a daily battle for me.

I have done A LOT of self healing and I have made a lot of progress, but I have come to the conclusion that whether I'm one, none, or all of the above , I just don't fit in a box and that's okay!!

I found my release in music, it was a coping mechanism, a world to get lost in.

But this leads me onto the second part of my story. During my music years, I met someone who would change my life.

A narccissist.

As i said before i do believe everything happens in devine order and its all lead me to where I am today. And I don't even hold a grudge towards this person. What's done is done.

And we were actually friends for a long while before getting together, we were best friends in fact, I can't even fault the friendship.

But the relationship was TOXIC!

The mental abuse was off the scale. And he also introduced me to cocaine. Now, in the beginning, it was all fun and games. Parties, recreational and I had no responsibilities in life so I thought why the hell not.

But it became more than that. He got me involved in not only taking it, but selling it too.

The entire relationship became based on that.

And ultimately it was detrimental to my soul.

I didnt even recognise myself. My family didn’t recognise me. It was like I had all these layers of personality I had invented to hide behind, but I couldn’t even remember who I was underneath it all!

I became more and more involved in this crazy lifestyle, so much so I ended up in prison because of it.

Honestly I look back and just think, how could I be so STUPID. It took me so long to admit that I was in a controlling and abusive relationship.

This guy had a hold on me. The kind of hold only a narccissist can have.

This wasnt some teenage crush where i 'loved' him so much and I'd do anything for him. I was a crushed soul, bowing down to a dictator.

I did what he wanted, when he wanted. I didn’t even exist. It was all about him.

My mental state was in pieces.

Im honestly so embarrased to tell people Ive been to jail. I mean even saying the word jail. It makes me cringe. I rarely tell people. There are family members that don’t even know!

But that prison freed me. From the jail that was my own body.

Its almost heartbreaking to think of myself all alone in a cell, no friends or family , but I had time to be on my own. With ME! The actual me, not the me I had been playing the part of for the last god knows how many years.

I honestly remember the day the penny dropped, it was when I put my nose ring back in. It sounds so crazy, but when I put it back in, all the pieces of me started to sort of fall into place too. I wore the clothes I wanted. I wore my hair how I wanted and I was starting to love being me again.

The mask was off! I existed again! And that was a beautiful feeling!

I can’t believe I’d kept up this charade for so many years! I should have been an actress, seriously 😂

So fast forward to today, I have a daughter, My Isabella Amethyst. I honestly love her more than I ever thought was even possible and she has played a major role in me becoming the person I am today, because she deserves me at my best and no less.

Another point to make is… As some one who was too foreign for the white folk; yet too white to be black… my whole life I had never fit in to a ‘group’.

I started researching my ancestral heritage and had a deep spiritual connection with the Italian and Spanish parts of my DNA. I even discovered I had Amerindian and oceanic DNA. Which was amazing and even more soul grabbing for me, it gave me a sense of belonging.

A lot of people say wow jode, you've changed so much!

But i am now, who I actually was before I was pressured in to believing I wasn't good enough as myself! Before I invented a new me, just to fit in with everyone else!

So along with becoming a parent, Ive managed to start my own holistic business too!

I do everything I love now, everything that makes my soul happy. I say yes to my intuition and say no to anything that doesn't serve me. We as women have to learn put ourselves first! We have to learn to trust ourselves, love ourselves and actually learn to be a bit selfish!

Life has given me some lemons, as they say. My world was incredibly sour at times and I have found my self in the darkest of corners, alone. But as clische as it is, after the darkness comes light.

I can wholeheartedly say that although I may not be 'living the dream' I could have been, if I had chosen all the 'right' paths in life, I am infact HAPPY. My soul is content and I am ME.

No matter what any of us have been through in life, we not only grow through it, we can flurish beyond it. These awful things happen to us, but they do not define us.

Sometimes we just have to lose ourselves, to find ourselves.

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gratefulfrog · 6 years

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Immigration Crisis myth vs reality

There is so much misinformation out there about the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy that requires criminal prosecution, which then warrants the separating of parents and children at the border. Before responding to a post defending this policy, please do your research...As a professor at a local Cal State, I research and write about these issues, so here, I'll make it easier for you:

Myth: This is not a new policy and was practiced under Obama and Clinton - FALSE. The policy to separate parents and children is new and was instituted on 4/6/2018. It was the brainchild of John Kelly and Stephen Miller to serve as a deterrent for undocumented immigration, approved by Trump, and adopted by Sessions. Prior administrations detained migrant families, but didn’t have a practice of forcibly separating parents from their children unless the adults were deemed unfit. https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1049751/download?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Myth: This is the only way to deter undocumented immigration - FALSE. Annual trends show that arrests for undocumented entry are at a 46 year low, and undocumented crossings dropped in 2007, with a net loss (more people leaving than arriving). Deportations have increased steadily though (spiking in 1996 and more recently), because several laws that were passed since 1996 have made it legally more difficult to gain legal status for people already here, and thus increased their deportations (I address this later under the myth that it's the Democrats' fault). What we mostly have now are people crossing the border illegally because they've already been hired by a US company, or because they are seeking political asylum. Economic migrants come to this country because our country has kept the demand going. But again, many of these people impacted by Trump's "zero tolerance" policy appear to be political asylum-seekers. https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05/568546381/arrests-for-illegal-border-crossings-hit-46-year-low

Myth: Most of the people coming across the border are just trying to take advantage of our country by taking our jobs - FALSE. Most of the parents who have been impacted by Trump's "zero tolerance" policy have presented themselves as political asylum-seekers at a U.S. port-of-entry, from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Rather than processing their claims, they have been taken into custody on the spot and had their children ripped from their arms. The ACLU alleges that this practice violates the Asylum Act, and the UN asserts that it violates the UN Treaty on the State of Refugees, one of the few treaties the US has ratified. This is an illegal act on the part of the United States government, not to mention morally and ethically reprehensible. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/21/us/meatpackers-profits-hinge-on-pool-of-immigrant-labor.html

Myth: We're a country that respects the Rule of Law, and if people break the law, this is what they get - FALSE. We are a country that has an above-ground system of immigration and an underground system. Our government (under both parties) has always been aware that US companies recruit workers in the poorest parts of Mexico for cheap labor, and ICE (and its predecessor INS) has looked the other way because this underground economy benefits our country to the tune of billions of dollars annually. Thus, even though the majority of people crossing the border now are asylum-seekers, those who are economic migrants (migrant workers) likely have been recruited here to do jobs Americans will not do. https://www.upi.com/Top_News/Opinion/2016/10/26/Donald-Trumps-wall-ignores-the-economic-logic-of-undocumented-immigrant-labor/2621477498203/

Myth: The children have to be separated from their parents because there parents must be arrested and it would be cruel to put children in jail with their parents - FALSE. First, in the case of economic migrants crossing the border illegally, criminal prosecution has not been the legal norm, and families have been kept together at all cost. Also, crossing the border without documentation is a typically a misdemeanor not requiring arrest, but rather a civil proceeding. Additionally, parents who have been detained have historically been detained with their children in ICE "family residential centers," again, for civil processing. The Trump administration's shift in policy is for political purposes only, not legal ones. See p. 18: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/ms-l-v-ice-plaintiffs-opposition-defendants-motion-dismiss-doc-56

Myth: We have rampant fraud in our asylum process the proof of which is the significant increase we have in the number of people applying for asylum. FALSE. The increase in asylum seekers is a direct result of the increase in civil conflict and violence across the globe. While some people may believe that we shouldn't allow any refugees into our country because "it's not our problem," neither our current asylum law, nor our ideological foundation as a country support such an isolationist approach. There is very little evidence to support Sessions' claim that abuse of our asylum-seeking policies is rampant. Also, what Sessions failed to mention is that the majority of asylum seekers are from China, not South of the border. Here is a very fair and balanced assessment of his statements: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/oct/19/jeff-sessions/jeff-sessions-claim-about-asylum-system-fraudulent/

Myth: The Democrats caused this, "it's their law." FALSE. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats caused this, the Trump administration did (although the Republicans could fix this today, and have refused). I believe what this myth refers to is the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which were both passed under Clinton in 1996. These laws essentially made unauthorized entry into the US a crime (typically a misdemeanor for first-time offenders), but under both Republicans and Democrats, these cases were handled through civil deportation proceedings, not a criminal proceeding, which did not require separation. And again, even in cases where detainment was required, families were always kept together in family residential centers, unless the parents were deemed unfit (as mentioned above). Thus, Trump's assertion that he hates this policy but has no choice but to separate the parents from their children, because the Democrats "gave us this law" is false and nothing more than propaganda designed to compel negotiation on bad policy. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-democrats-us-border-migrant-families-children-parents-mexico-separate-a8401521.html

Myth: The parents and children will be reunited shortly, once the parents' court cases are finalized. FALSE. Criminal court is a vastly different beast than civil court proceedings. Also, the children are being processed as unaccompanied minors ("unaccompanied alien children"), which typically means they are sent into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS). Under normal circumstances when a child enters the country without his or her parent, ORR attempts to locate a family member within a few weeks, and the child is then released to a family member, or if a family member cannot be located, the child is placed in a residential center (anywhere in the country), or in some cases, foster care. Prior to Trump's new policy, ORR was operating at 95% capacity, and they simply cannot effectively manage the influx of 2000+ children, some as young as 4 months. Also, keep in mind, these are not unaccompanied minor children, they have parents. There is great legal ambiguity on how and even whether the parents will get their children back because we are in uncharted territory right now. According to the ACLU lawsuit (see below), there is currently no easy vehicle for reuniting parents with their children. Additionally, according to a May 2018 report, numerous cases of verbal, physical and sexual abuse were found to have occurred in these residential centers. https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-obtains-documents-showing-widespread-abuse-child-immigrants-us-custody

Myth: This policy is legal. LIKELY FALSE. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on 5/6/18, and a recent court ruling denied the government's motion to dismiss the suit. The judge deciding the case stated that the Trump Administration policy is "brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency." The case is moving forward because it was deemed to have legal merit. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-07/aclu-suit-over-child-separations-at-border-may-proceed-judge

#immigrants #immigration #nation of immigrants #melting pot #human rights #morals #morality #give us your tired and weary #this is not normal #this is not okay #detention centers #myth vs reality #children

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dudewhoabides · 6 years

Quote

Have you heard that children were separated from their parents under Obama & Clinton? Then, you need a little Facts vs Myths lesson. Michelle Martin, PhD Cal State Fullerton summed up the most important FACTS: There is so much misinformation out there about the Trump administration's new "zero tolerance" policy that requires criminal prosecution, which then warrants the separating of parents and children at the border. Before responding to a post defending this policy, please do your research...As a professor at a local Cal State, I research and write about these issues, so here, I'll make it easier for you: Myth: This is not a new policy and was practiced under Obama and Clinton - FALSE. The policy to separate parents and children is new and was instituted on 4/6/2018. It was the brainchild of John Kelly and Stephen Miller to serve as a deterrent for undocumented immigration, approved by Trump, and adopted by Sessions. Prior administrations detained migrant families, but didn’t have a practice of forcibly separating parents from their children unless the adults were deemed unfit. https://www.justice.gov/…/press-rele…/file/1049751/download… Myth: This is the only way to deter undocumented immigration - FALSE. Annual trends show that arrests for undocumented entry are at a 46 year low, and undocumented crossings dropped in 2007, with a net loss (more people leaving than arriving). Deportations have increased steadily though (spiking in 1996 and more recently), because several laws that were passed since 1996 have made it legally more difficult to gain legal status for people already here, and thus increased their deportations (I address this later under the myth that it's the Democrats' fault). What we mostly have now are people crossing the border illegally because they've already been hired by a US company, or because they are seeking political asylum. Economic migrants come to this country because our country has kept the demand going. But again, many of these people impacted by Trump's "zero tolerance" policy appear to be political asylum-seekers. https://www.npr.org/…/arrests-for-illegal-border-crossings-… Myth: Most of the people coming across the border are just trying to take advantage of our country by taking our jobs - FALSE. Most of the parents who have been impacted by Trump's "zero tolerance" policy have presented themselves as political asylum-seekers at a U.S. port-of-entry, from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Rather than processing their claims, they have been taken into custody on the spot and had their children ripped from their arms. The ACLU alleges that this practice violates the Asylum Act, and the UN asserts that it violates the UN Treaty on the State of Refugees, one of the few treaties the US has ratified. This is an illegal act on the part of the United States government, not to mention morally and ethically reprehensible. https://www.nytimes.com/…/meatpackers-profits-hinge-on-pool… Myth: We're a country that respects the Rule of Law, and if people break the law, this is what they get - FALSE. We are a country that has an above-ground system of immigration and an underground system. Our government (under both parties) has always been aware that US companies recruit workers in the poorest parts of Mexico for cheap labor, and ICE (and its predecessor INS) has looked the other way because this underground economy benefits our country to the tune of billions of dollars annually. Thus, even though the majority of people crossing the border now are asylum-seekers, those who are economic migrants (migrant workers) likely have been recruited here to do jobs Americans will not do. https://www.upi.com/…/Donald-Trumps-wall-ign…/2621477498203/ Myth: The children have to be separated from their parents because there parents must be arrested and it would be cruel to put children in jail with their parents - FALSE. First, in the case of economic migrants crossing the border illegally, criminal prosecution has not been the legal norm, and families have been kept together at all cost. Also, crossing the border without documentation is a typically a misdemeanor not requiring arrest, but rather a civil proceeding. Additionally, parents who have been detained have historically been detained with their children in ICE "family residential centers," again, for civil processing. The Trump administration's shift in policy is for political purposes only, not legal ones. See p. 18: https://www.aclu.org/…/ms-l-v-ice-plaintiffs-opposition-def… Myth: We have rampant fraud in our asylum process the proof of which is the significant increase we have in the number of people applying for asylum. FALSE. The increase in asylum seekers is a direct result of the increase in civil conflict and violence across the globe. While some people may believe that we shouldn't allow any refugees into our country because "it's not our problem," neither our current asylum law, nor our ideological foundation as a country support such an isolationist approach. There is very little evidence to support Sessions' claim that abuse of our asylum-seeking policies is rampant. Also, what Sessions failed to mention is that the majority of asylum seekers are from China, not South of the border. Here is a very fair and balanced assessment of his statements: http://www.politifact.com/…/jeff-sessions-claim-about-asyl…/ Myth: The Democrats caused this, "it's their law." FALSE. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats caused this, the Trump administration did (although the Republicans could fix this today, and have refused). I believe what this myth refers to is the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which were both passed under Clinton in 1996. These laws essentially made unauthorized entry into the US a crime (typically a misdemeanor for first-time offenders), but under both Republicans and Democrats, these cases were handled through civil deportation proceedings, not a criminal proceeding, which did not require separation. And again, even in cases where detainment was required, families were always kept together in family residential centers, unless the parents were deemed unfit (as mentioned above). Thus, Trump's assertion that he hates this policy but has no choice but to separate the parents from their children, because the Democrats "gave us this law" is false and nothing more than propaganda designed to compel negotiation on bad policy. https://www.independent.co.uk/…/trump-democrats-us-border-m… Myth: The parents and children will be reunited shortly, once the parents' court cases are finalized. FALSE. Criminal court is a vastly different beast than civil court proceedings. Also, the children are being processed as unaccompanied minors ("unaccompanied alien children"), which typically means they are sent into the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS). Under normal circumstances when a child enters the country without his or her parent, ORR attempts to locate a family member within a few weeks, and the child is then released to a family member, or if a family member cannot be located, the child is placed in a residential center (anywhere in the country), or in some cases, foster care. Prior to Trump's new policy, ORR was operating at 95% capacity, and they simply cannot effectively manage the influx of 2000+ children, some as young as 4 months. Also, keep in mind, these are not unaccompanied minor children, they have parents. There is great legal ambiguity on how and even whether the parents will get their children back because we are in uncharted territory right now. According to the ACLU lawsuit (see below), there is currently no easy vehicle for reuniting parents with their children. Additionally, according to a May 2018 report, numerous cases of verbal, physical and sexual abuse were found to have occurred in these residential centers. https://www.aclu.org/…/aclu-obtains-documents-showing-wides… Myth: This policy is legal. LIKELY FALSE. The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on 5/6/18, and a recent court ruling denied the government's motion to dismiss the suit. The judge deciding the case stated that the Trump Administration policy is "brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency." The case is moving forward because it was deemed to have legal merit. https://www.bloomberg.com/…/aclu-suit-over-child-separation…

Karen Brown

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12raben · 7 years

Text

A big "random" post ;)

In the past some of you showed interest in the ROS-list, I use. I wasn’t sure, if I may share this list, since I pilfered all over the place. (ROS and Challenges alike) I’m not able to thank every single person, who I copied. After a lillte research in my old files,

I want to thank Vllygrl, child_of_air, TheAppleNinja and Kutto.

Their names were saved in one of my old documents. If you see an event below the cut, which you invented, please message me and I’ll add you to the four above.

Two warnings: It is a looooooong post and some of the events may be considered cruel, digusting or inhuman insim... is that a word? XD

Ok, as you might know, I have actually two ROS-lists. One for annual events and another for seasonal events. The first one affects the whole neighborhood. The effect may last pretty long. The second one affects a family for one season. At the second day of every rotation, I roll a seasonal ROS. Some of them may conflict with your playstyle. Feel free to skip them or tweak them into an event, that fits your game and (maybe) share it again :)

I use all EPs and some events are neccessary to play an event.

And there are a ton of mods in my game. I tried to list all neccessary mods, but feel free to say so, if I missed one.

A Teleporte of any kind e.g. Simlogical Teleporter

An object to send money e.g. Christianlov’s Wallet controller

Simblender (or something similar)

Simlogical’s Please yourself 2 Plant

Simwardrobe’s Incendiary Bomb (sims 2 -> objects -> other objects)

Sunni’s Bubonic Rats

buyable trash

monique’s hacked computer (or another medieval one here)

A great “online-dice” is located here. In the last line you can write any number and the dice will show a number between one and your number.

Neighbourhood events

These events last usually one season. Use a d(20) dice first.

1) Financial Crisis

Everything becomes expensive. Adjust the prices in owned shops. Everything costs double.

2) Immense Taxes

The crown reclaims more taxes. Pay the double amount to the crown.

(Or use an big bills mod, if you don’t have a tax system.)

3) Assassins!

Kill 2 sims in the royal family (or other highest rank), males and heirs first. If you want to add a little storyline, you can choose one of your playables to be the murderer. Roll for an outcome for the assassin:

Sim gets away scot-free.

Sim is apprehended and sent to jail for (d20) days.

Sim is apprehended and sent to jail for life.

Sim frames another Sim (lowest LT or furious state.) That Sim goes to jail for (d12) days.

Sim frames another Sim (above) That Sim goes to jail for life.

Sim is put to death for the crime.

If the assassin is caught, his family will be dispossessed. All teens and adults have to move to a convent or poorhouse.

All children and toddlers will be put up for adoption.

This also counts for the sim, who was framed for the murder.

4) Murderer Syndrome

A Sim invites (d8) Sims to his home and murders them. You can create a new sim for this purpose, make an NPC selectable or choose one of your playables. (Pick the victims. E.g. Lowest LTR first.) Roll for the murderer:

Sim gets away scot-free.

Sim is apprehended and sent to jail for (d12) days.

Sim is apprehended and sent to jail for life.

Sim frames another Sim (lowest LT or furious state.) That Sim goes to jail for (d12) days.

Sim frames another Sim (above) That Sim goes to jail for life.

Sim is put to death for the crimes.

5) The Inquisition

The inquisition comes and it’s not the nice inquisition of Dragon Age: Inquisition. It’s more like the spanish one :(

The local guard's hands are tied. Roll for each paranormal sim (witch, werewolf, alien etc.) whether he/she dies.

D(6): 2 or 4 = Sim survives

Further more you have to pick d(4) families other than already paranormal ones. The chance for survival is for woman as above. Men die, when the dice shows an odd number.

6) Flood

D(12) Houses are flooded.

Place at least d(10) sinks in locked room and break them.

Do not allow them to be fixed for 24 hours.

All rugs and furniture that touch the floor must be replaced.

Sell sinks back after flooding is done.

7) Terrible Tempest

D(12) Houses are demolished.

Sim must move out with all household members immediately.

In neighborhood view use the lots bin bulldozer tool to demolish the lot. (Or put it into the lot-catalogue.)

Then either put down an EMPTY lot in the same place and move the household in to rebuild, or move Sims into another house, if they can afford it.

You may save (d6) items in inventory.

(Please don’t forget to move any graves on the lot!)

8) Famine!

All Fridges are available just once a day for 3 sim-hours.

You can’t eat any harvest items.

Put the fridge in the inventory of one of your sims.

Mothers are allowed to breastfeed.

You may not send one of your sims cooking.

No visits on community-lots to get food.

9) War

Your community is under Siege. See Besieged!-Challenge to get all restrictions for your soldiers. (Water, Food, Sanitation, Psychological, Work & Commerce)

For Outcome 1-3: the war lasts one season. The soldiers are sent to a war-camp. It is a residential lot, that looks like a theatre of war. (To make my soldiers as desperate as possible, I simply didn’t control them. Sims, who are on their own, are like drunken toddlers.)

Border skirmish Send at least 6 sims, as many soldiers (military career) as possible. Your first choice for males will be those that are professional warriors. Your ruling family does not participate.

Battle Send at least 12 sims regardless of status, including your ruling male.

Epic Battle Send all adult males from every house. In the event that their are no adult males, send up to 2 elders/teens in their place. (You might want to add a second war camp, so you don’t have twenty (or even more) sims on one lot all the time.)

Besieged! Stop regular gameplay and do the Besieged!-Challenge.

After the battle (forecloses 4 → Besieged!) Roll for every sim, who attended the war:

Odd: Death The graves of the brave warriors stay on the war camp. Only the body of a royal person and of the leader of the army may be returned to the home graveyard.

Even:

War Wounds After going back to his family for one day, your sim decides he can no longer handle life after the war and enters a monastery permanently. The family is allowed to visit him.

Slaves! Your sim kidnaps d(2) local(s). (It’s up to you to decide, whether you create new sims, choose NPCs or playables, whatever fits you game best.) He may blackmail the family and receive ransom (an amount between 1000 or 10000 simoleans maybe? Depending on social status.) or keep the kidnapped one as a servant. The servant needs a Prisoner Tag in his inventory.

War Hero Your sim is a war hero! He recieves d(100)x1000 simleoans and a title from the crown. Cheat to make the next 10 sims, the hero meets, his best friends.

Your Pay Your Sim gets his ordinary pay from the crown.

Peasant to Merchant: d(10)x100

Gentry and above: d(10)x1000

10) Did you hear about...?

Set up a party! Just meet and greet.

Get some meals and something to drink.

Summon:

Adventurers, sailors and travellers

Woman of high rank (gentry and above)

Marriageable Sims (Pick or roll the rank, but stay within it)

Cleris (of one religion, if you have diffrent in your game)

Soldiers and/or Knights

Supernaturals

11) I’m going on an adventure!

D(8) Sims can hardly wait to travel.

They may or may not be a member of the household.

Let them all go to vaction destination for 3 days.

Dig out as many treasures as possible.

Try to learn everything about the country. (Gesture, Massage etc.)

12) God's mysterious ways....

A miracel happened!

Let pilgrims travel to the place and pay the church to see the miracel.

You may just add a ticket machine to your church and add the income to the cloistre/monastry funds.

13) Did you say SEA MONSTER!?

A huge, scary monster terrorizes your community. You have to sacrafice:

3 fair young maidens (teens, peasants first)

5 strong men (e.g. soldiers)

2 members of the royal family

5 martys (religious sims)

10 slaves/peasants (or 12 townies )

the king/queen

If you roll a number between 14) and 20) Nothing happens. Everything goes on normally.

Ok. These were the annual events. Are you still reading? Well, then you can read about...

Seasonal Events

1. The diligent Band:

Peasants/Yeomanry Your Family is allowed to hire a servant to help in the family's business. Cheat to get all the money back, the servant consumes.

Noble/Merchant

If you've got it, flaunt it! Hire one new servant.

Trim away the excess. Fire one servant.

Royal

If you've got it, flaunt it! Hire 5 new servants.

Trim away the excess. Fire 3 servants.

2. But I want a pony!

Peasants and Yeomanry: You can't afford a horse, but at least you find a new cat in the stables.

Merchants: A horse is really expensive, but a small dog will do the trick.

Noble: Buy a new horse. (May be usable or decorative)

Royal: Buy a new horse and a new coach. (May be usable or decorative)

3. Thieves!

Use Simsky's Burglar Scheduler Painting to summon burglar to lot.

4. All are the same (business needed)

Peasants: Dress all employees in uniforms.

Noble: Dress all employees in uniforms and give them (d10x100) Simoleons.

Royal: Dress all employees in uniforms and give them (d10x1.000) Simoleons.

5. Cart Repairs

Deduct from funds (d10 x 100). Place cart in inventory until paid.

6. Alms for the poor

Peasants: Your household is a poor family. Roll to determine, how much the richest family, they personally know will give them. (d10 x 100)

Merchants: The household must provide the poorest family, they know with financial assistance. Roll (d10 x 100) to see how much will be given.

Noble: The household must provide the poorest family, they know with financial assistance. Roll (d10 x 1.000) to see how much will be given.

Royal: The household must provide the poorest family, they know with financial assistance. Roll (d100 x 1.000) to see how much will be given.

7. Difficult Wedding Negotiations

Any engaged female must bring with her double dowry amount.

Alternately, any engaged male must pay a dower or "bride price" to the family of the woman, whom he is engaged to, which is the same amount as a dowry of a maiden.

8. Some benevolence

Donate:

Peasants/Yeomanry (d10)x10

Merchants/Gentry (d10)x100

Noble/Royal (d10)x1.000 to:

Orphanage

Church

School

Almshouse

Town Watch

Midwife

Hospital

College

9. Something fresh

(d10) kaching-cheats for new decoration items in your house. (Just decoration and non-harvestable plants/trees! Nothing else!)

10. Food Supplies

Peasants: The family has to give the half of their reserves (inventory) to the family with the best social station, they personally know.

Merchants: The family gets 1/4 of the reserves from the family with the worst social station, they personally know.

Noble: The family gets the half of the reserves from the family with the worst social station, they personally know.

Royal: The family gets 3/4 of the reserves from 4 peasant families, they personally know.

11. Crown Reclaims Land Household

Peasants to Merchants: The household has 24 hours to move to a new lot, which they can afford. May take any objects you wish in Sims inventory.

Noble to Royal: The crown gets a lot. (d10xkaching-cheat)

12. Times are better, adopt!

Let the oldest sim in the household adopt one child.

13. Betroth/Marry off one child.

Oldest child first. To make sure they are handled well, marry the child to the a single with the highest STR/LTR (with parents).

The wedding has to be happening right now. (no dowry needed)

14. Surprise Pregnancy!

A unplanned child, ooops! (Married women first)

15. Are you a saint??

Adopt three children in a row. (d3; 1=baby, 2=toddler, 3=child, 4=teen)

16. Blood is thicker than water

A distant impoverished relative moves in.

Make a new Sim in CAS and move in to household.

Make new Sim a relative using Sim Blender.

In his first season the new sim will:

Even: work and care for the family, family farm or family business.

Odd: Sabotage the family (fear challenge)

At the end of the season the new sim has to be best friends with at least 1 sim in the household to stay there. If the new sim isn’t friends with anyone, he has to move out on his own.

17. Sword Wedding

Your sim has been caught partaking in scandalous behavior with another sim, and both sets of parents demand marriage to keep the family honor.

Marry the single sim with the highest LTR and closest social status, or whomever your sim has been most intimate with.

No dowry or dower is needed, since this is a rushed affair.

18. Are Ye Daft? Wedding

Pick a Sim in the household, who is not married already and has a dowry.

Have he or she invite over the Sim they know with highest LTR, and marry on the spot.

19. Non-consummation

Any childless married couple in the household divorces due to non-consummation or impotency, use simlogical’s hack to "break up".

Bride is free to take her dowry back and both parties are free to remarry.

20. Miscarriage

Due to bad conditions any pregnancy must be ended.

If your sim gets pregnant (again) within this season, the pregnancy must be terminated too.

21. An evidence of your love(?)

Let your sim have a date with her/his spouse, bethroed, etc.

Odd: make the worst date possible

Even: fulfill all wishes and try to get the best date evar

22. Crushing...!

Just add a crush to the sim with the highest chemestry, you don't already have a crush on.

23. Abandonment

Wife(even) or husband(odd) abandons family permanently.

Send the sim to cloistre/monastery.

24. Festives

Host a party for your all familymembers. If there are relatives, who are not friends summon them. If your game doesn’t have the holidays below just think of them as a theme. (As I do.)

Christmas: Hang a mistletoe and try to kiss as many sims as possible.

Wedding: Buy a cake and champagne. The bridal couple recieves d(10)x100 from every visiting household.

Name Day: Buy your child a present and recieve (d10)x10 from every visiting adult.

Silvester: Buy d(6) banger, sparkler and champagne.

Funeral Feast: Visit a grave. Let all Sims mourn and have a good meal.

A seasonal Feast: Serve 2 seasonal Meals. (e.g. Spring: Salad, Autumn: Pumpkins)

25. Twins!

Cheat to give birth to twins.

27. Devine Adoption

Give your youngest child to the church in order that they become a monk or nun.

28. Large Wedding Gifts

You have to throw a wedding party.

Roll to determine how much the newly married couple will get from each household they are friends with.

Peasants: (d10X100)

Noble: (d10X1.000)

Royal: (d10X10.000)

29. Elves happens to come by

Chosen sim gets abducted and impregnated. Female react like „Pregnancy out of wedlock“-event. (Num

30. Get thee to a nunnery!

Send your wife to a convent.

31. Banish somebody!

Peasants to Merchants: Your sim gets banished! Look below, how he/she can come back.

Noble and Royal: Your sim banishes an unloved sim.

The exile has to move to a small lot in the outskirts, where he/she is living a dire existence. You have to play him/her in the regular rotation.

Add a Prisoner Tag into the sim's inventory

You are not allowed to build any kind of structure.

You may not own a phone, computer or anything else to provide communication.

You can greet walkbys, but everytime someone is greeted, you have to roll d(10). If the result is a 10, your banished sim has been caught and will be executed.

You may visit community lots, but you have to roll d(4). If the result is a 4, your banished sim has been caught and will be executed.

The peasant may return, when he/she has become BFFs with a close relative/friend of the king or when the king dies.

32. Climbing the ladder

Your household must throw a party (Sportparty, New Years, etc) and invite their neighbors of the same or higher rank to their feast in order to form alliances.

Peasants You must provide at least 1 home cooked meals (not bought, but made) for your guests to choose from. Invite at least 5 sims

Merchants You must provide at least 2 home cooked meals (not bought, but made) for your guests to choose from. Invite at least 7 sims.

Noble You must provide at least 3 home cooked meals (not bought, but made) for your guests to choose from, and music played by a minstrel. Invite at least 8 sims to your feast, 12 if your family is titled.

Royal You must provide at least 6 home cooked meals (not bought, but made) for your guests to choose from, and music played by 2 minstrels. Invite at least 14 sims to your feast.

33. The Mistress

For Females Have your single female sim become the mistress of a male sim of higher rank. This is determined by whomever she has the highest LTR relationship with. He must provide her with a house of her own, and in return this arrangement is exclusive, she cannot take another lover or marry. Any children born of this arrangement he must care for and publicly acknowledge by paying a sum once per season to the household. For every child the mistress gets 100 simoleans.

Merchant d(10)x100

Gentry/Noble/Royal d(10)x1.000

For Males Have your highest ranking male sim within the household take a single female mistress. This is determined by whomever he has the highest LTR relationship with. See above for rules applying to her upkeep, and that of any possible children.

(Depending on your playstyle, your noble ladies could also have a “toyboy”. Sorry, I don’t even know the word in german. This was the only one I could think of.)

34. Pregnancy out of wedlock

An unmarried female sim is impregnated out of wedlock.

Before the first "bump" appears she must move out on her own or marry another unsuspecting single male she has the highest LTR with.

If she moves out on her own, she will have to bring the double dowry amount, if she’s ever going to get married.

If there is a married woman, she'll have to recieve a child with the man with the most bolts or highest LTR who isn't her husband or a household member.

35. A Title!

It's just a title! No money!

Peasants: Knight

Merchant:Noble: Baronet

Gentry/Noble: Lord, Baron, Viscount, Earl

Royal: Viscount, Earl

36. Blackmail

Your sim must seduce the highest ranking person in the neighborhood of the opposite sex and blackmail them.

Sucess (Even) After the seduction your sim moves up one level in social status or is given enough money to buy the new title.

Fail (Odd) The highborn refuse to be blackmailed. He/She gets the town watch involved. The blackmailer has to stay in prison for d(5) days.

37. Try to get into the society:

Garden Club

Invite the headmaster (Just gentry and above)

Secret society (YA only, just gentry and above)

A student association (YA only, just gentry and above)

38. Fraticide/Soroicide

Our power hungry sim kills off the family heir- be it their elder brother or sister, and becomes the next heir, despite whether or not children have been born to the heir.

39. Broken Limb

Your sim had an accident. He/She may not work and has to relax on bed/sofa all day. (Use simlogical’s PleaseYourself2Plant to adjust the needs of the sick sim.)

Odd: It's an compound fracture. Your sim's wound will be infected and he/she gets a flue.

Even: Your sim is healed.

41. Insanity

Sim goes insane for 4 days.

The sim must go to Almshouse/Cloistre/Monastery/Asylum for “treatment”, which is to attain Lifelong Happiness and Anger Management.

After the 4 days are over, roll d(4) for an outcome:

Sim is released and returns home

Sim is permanently insane and remains in the Almshouse/Cloistre/Monastery/Asylum for life

Sim stays one more season

Sim has to convience society (play the asylum-challenge)

42. Coming of age

Your sim has to age d(4)x3 days

43. Well of youth

Your sim has to become d(4)x3 days younger

44. Fatal Collapse

Sim spends (d3) days nursing his/her injury isolated in bedroom. (Use simlogical’s PleaseYourself2Plant to adjust the needs of the sick sim.)

45. The Sick Child

Your youngest child is very weak.

It's not allowed to leave his/her room.

Put a prisoner-token in their inventory.

Don't give them any new lifetime-benefits (freetime).

He/She is not allowed to fall in love with the people their siblings bring home from school/work.

He/She may not use the telephone or the computer.

The family is allowed to introduce any sims to the sick child. The sick child is only allowed to have visitors from 5-7 p.m.

Once the sick child reaches adulthood, they may leave the room, but not the lot. (No work!) Now he/she may fall in love and/or marry. The spouse on the other hand is free to do whatever he/she wants.

If it's a woman roll for every birth, whether she dies: (d6) 6 she survies.

Roll every season how many “seizures” the sim will have. (D(5) once a season) For every seizure roll again, if the sim’s going to survive.

Chances for survival

Children (1 out of 4)

Teen (2 out of 4)

Adult (3 out of 4)

46. Rat Infestation

Spawn d(20) garbage piles and d(10) Rats on a lot. Do not clean for 24 hours!

47. Time goes by...

You have to speed up. Just pause once per day (that may be the time you want to save) and at any other time let the time past on 2x

48. Fire!!

Place Simwardrobe’s bomb on the lot and roll d(4) for the impact

49. Crop Failure

Early frost/A bunch of animals wipes out entire vegetable and/or fruit crop.

Peasants to Noble: Delete all crops and food in your sims’ family inventory. Get rid of the money, they made because of it. Make the fridge inaccessable for 1 day.

Royal:

Even: Send help to your folk. Prepare 20 Meals of your own resources and give them to the peasants.

Odd: Let the peasants die. Spawn (d6) peasants and let them die of starvation. Their ghosts will haunt you..! (Unless you move their graves on a cemetery, but still...!)

50. Childbirth

The sim giving birth dies.

Even: The baby survieves.

Odd: The baby also dies.

You may roll for other children of the mother, wheter they blame the newborn. (Odd= lower the relationship to -20, teens will only take care of the baby, if they have to (e.g. nobody else is around))

51. Poisoned

A new spice causes allergic reactions. (dx) people in the household die. x = number of sims in the household

52. Old age

Applies to eldest sim in household, males before females (as females typically live longer).

53. Flies

Applies to sim with the least amount of neat points in the household.

54. False imprisonment

Applies to any sim of your choosing. They are imprisoned and die of starvation.

55. A shooting star

Sim dies by satellite(applies to the laziest sim in household) ... Maybe the money the satellite gets you, is some comfort?

56. Death by Exhaustion (Fright)

Peasants to Gentry: Your peasant dies from sheer exhaustion.

Noble and Royal: Your serf dies from sheer exhaustion.

57. Quacksalver

You are given a “new cure“ from a far off country which kills/disables you.

Roll for every sim (child and older):

Odd = death!

Even = disabled (give morning sickness)

58. Wrongly Jailed

Your male sim has been accused of treason and must spend 2 sim days locked in prison or the jail.

You may leave a bucket of water (sink) in their cell, but the sim may not have access to food to simulate torture conditions.

60. Wishful thinking

Add to a randomly chosen sim: a want slot, a want lock and a fear slot

61. Pub brawl!

Go to a tavern, have a few drinks, summon d(4) sims you dislike, pick a fight with all of them!

62. Burn the witch!

Your female sim has been accused of witchcraft by the church and must spend 5 sim days in local jail.

No bed will be provided to simulate torture conditions.

If she is a witch, she may not use their powers. If she does, she will be put to death.

64. Peasant Rebellion

Your serf or peasant sim rebels against their ruling family or Monarchy.

Peasants: Have the closest noble family send 1,000 simoleans to the rebel to simulate booty obtained during the rebellion, but the rebel must spend 4 sim days in jail with no bed to simulate torture.

Merchant: Have the closest noble family send 2,000 simoleans to the rebel to simulate booty obtained during the rebellion, but the rebel must spend 2 sim days in jail with no bed to simulate torture.

Gentry/Noble: Have the noble family send 3,000 simoleans to the households of the rebel to simulate booty obtained during the rebellion, but the rebel must spend 7 sim days in jail with no bed to simulate torture.

Royal: Have the royal family send 5,000 simoleans to the households of the rebel to simulate booty obtained during the rebellion, but the rebel must spend 10 sim days in jail with no bed to simulate torture. The rebel is the poorest man or woman in the neighborhood.

65. Crime Does Pay

Sim must spend all his/her free time counterfeiting coins for (d6) days.

If caught, Sim must go to jail for (d4) days.

66.Vacation home

A distant relative bequeath you a house. ((d3) 1=Asia, 2=Mountain, 3=Island)

67. Inner Peace

Sim must move to Convent or Monastery for one season and spend 6 consecutive hours in prayer (meditation) each day.

Even: Stay in convent or monastery for another season, than roll again.

Odd: Return home

68. Attack of the unseen

Your sim was attacked by a paranormal and becomes:

Witch ((d3) 1= bad, 2= neutral, 3= good)

Vampire

Werewolf

Zombie

Plantsim

69. The Stolen Child

The youngest member of the family is stolen by a roaming gypsy band and is never restored to the original family. (You may put the child up for adoption, make it an NPC or move it to an playable gypsy family.)

70. The Bad Well

Let a sim with red aspiration chart use the wishing well. (Or use a custom one, that's already cursed.)

71. Matchmaker Curse

Summon the Matchmaker

Pay her as much money, as you like, to find spouse.

You have to marry the first Sim falling from the sky within 3 days.

Otherwise your Sim gets:

Odd: unfertile, lazy and slobby

Even: extremly ugly, mean and serious (Use the Surgery-Station and change your Sim yourself or use the „failure“-face.)

72. Voodoo Curse

Women:

Your sim has to become a witch and summon the voodoo doll

fall in love with help of the yoodoo doll and marry

have a daughter (keep trying)

daughter must reach lvl 5 charisma and logic to recieve voodoo doll + become witch

once gets voodoo doll and becomes/is an adult she must kill her mother

Men

the same. Just support your sons.

Move the mother to your house and marry

73. Give it a try.

Call the matchmaker and have a blind date. Pay as much money as you like. Let them have a chat, check out the date. But don't intervene any further.

Unmarried:

Dream Date to Good: Make a proposal on spot. (Move the townie into a playable household, if he/she is a towie or else.)

Okay: Nothing happens. Maybe you'll just stay friends?

Lame to Horrible: annoy/fight/prank the ex-date d(6) time

Married:

Dream Date to Good: Have your sim run away with the new love or make him/her your favourite.

Okay: Nothing happens. Maybe you'll just stay friends?

Lame to Horrible: There can't be friendship. Your spouse might find out! Make the ex-date a fiend.

74. Impress the robbers before you kill them.

Buy a new guard dog. Give the dog a job in the security-career.

75. A hord of cats

Move d(6) cats into your house.

76. Pass the painting

Paint (d8) paintings and bestow them on your friends and relatives.

77. Give them an inch and they will take an ell.

Your family is out of control for one season.

You're allowed to control the patriarch.

78. A new perspective

Give d(x) sims in your household a new random aspiration and secondary aspiration. (x = number of teens and older your household).

New aspiration:

Pleasure

Family

Romance

Knowledge

Fortune

Popularity

Grilled Cheese, if you get the same.

79. Now I get it...!

Add a golden talent badge to one of your sims:

Cosmetology

Sales

Flower Arranging

Toy Making

Robotery

Cash Register

Stocking

Gardenering

Fishing

Pottery

Sewing

80. A stray found a new owner!

You get a ...

Dog.

Cat.

Special Species.

Custom (MTS2: fawn, bear, etc.)

Wolf

bird(cage)

womrat.

81. Houseguest

Invite a sim to stay in your house for one season (financee, friend, cousin...)

Note that the guest will age, while he lives in your household. Write down the aging information to age him/her down again.

82. Nothing happens. Everything goes on normally.

Wait. You read that? This is awesome! Thank you for your patience and your attention. I hope you will have fun with these events! :)

Happy simming!

#sims #sims 2 #sims 2 medieval #ts2 #ros #finds

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mamasgonecrazy · 8 years

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Mental Illness and the Monster You Don’t Want

Hello Internet!

I want to talk about something serious today. I guess that is no surprise coming from me, but I do think it is a very important subject to talk about. As many people can become triggered easily, I will give a trigger warning. I really hope however that you can take a moment to prepare yourself, and continue to read, because this is important. This post will talk about a tragic murder that happened 9 years ago, and about mental illness.

Back in 2008 a tragic incident occurred in Canada. While riding a Greyhound Bus, 22 year old Tim McLean was tragically murdered by 40 year old Vince Li. The young man was stabbed multiple times while frightened passengers fled the bus. Li then continued to behead Tim, and started to consume parts of his body. Many were witnesses to this, including some RCMP officers who would later suffer from PTSD due to the horrifying nature of what they saw. The whole country mourned for the young man, and our hearts went out to his family. During the time of the trial, Li was seen by psychiatrists, and pleaded insanity. His mental health was brought to the foreground, and it was revealed that Li suffers from extremely bad schizophrenia. He was unmedicated at the time and had no supports in place to help him cope with his condition. At the time of the killing, he had heard “The Voice of God” who told him that the young man beside him was a force of evil who was about to execute him. Fearing for his life, Li committed the heinous actions that ended Tim’s life. He was declared NCR (not criminally responsible) and sent to a mental institution, where he spent the next 9 years. During his time there, as he continued to work on his mental health, he was slowly granted more and more allowances, until very recently when he was released all together- being granted Absolute Discharge.

Now, that is the backstory for anyone who hasn’t heard any of this in the news. Since his release there have been countless people on social media who are outraged. They call Li (who now goes by Will Baker) a monster, danger to society, and call for him to be locked up for life. I have even seen some people who call for his execution (because you know, we totally believe in Capital Punishment in Canada). I would like to take a moment to state on record that I am not talking about my personal feelings over the murder of Tim. It was tragic, and that fact is indisputable. By writing this post, I am not trying to insult any friends or family, and I am not trying to disrespect this young soul. I am simply going to talk about mental illness, and rehabilitation. I am talking about the present, and not the past incident. Recently social media celebrated Let’s Talk Day, in which most people identified themselves as an ally to those who suffer from mental illnesses. Some even identified as someone who personally has a mental illness. However, from the comments I have read recently, they should have identified as an ally to people who have illnesses that are not super scary but enemies to those who are scary.

Schizophrenia is as important of a mental health issue to acknowledge as depression and anxiety. It is categorized as abnormal social behaviour, and a failure to understand what is or is not real. Suffers could have false beliefs, unclear thinking, and even see or hear voices that others do not. With the inability to tell that this voices are not real, they believe in them, and experience them as reality. It is not a “curable” condition, however can be managed through means of medication and therapy. At the time Vince Li was not on medication and was not seeking therapy. He was living life with this horrible condition and experienced everything around him as completely real. To him, God spoke to him and warned him that he was about to be hurt. That conversation happened to him as much as the conversation you had with the cashier at the grocery store happened to you. Once he was hospitalized, and started understanding and working on his mental disorder, he understood what he had done was wrong. But more than that, he felt remorse. He even begged to die, because it was so hard to live with the act that he committed. With doctors help, he has worked himself to a point where he understands what needs to be done to stay safe. Now, let’s look at a couple of the legal mumbo-jumbo that we need to understand here. First, NCR. Here is what the Canadian Criminal Code has to say about NCR. “No person is criminally responsible for an act committed or an omission made while suffering from a mental disorder that rendered the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or omission or of knowing that it was wrong.” It does not take away responsibility from the guilty party, but rather lessens the responsibility if they were not in a healthy enough state of mind. Someone with schizophrenia as extreme as Li’s was not mentally capable of understanding that he was committing a crime at the time that he committed it. He did not go free either, but was locked away for almost 10 years. Next, Absolute Discharge. To receive a discharge from a crime, there are a large number of criteria that must be met. It is not a decision that is taken lightly, and is only done in cases where it is deemed appropriate to do so. In the case of Li, he was rehabilitated and released (which has nothing to do with the Absolute Discharge), however with the criminal record over his head would find life impossible to continue. Now, many people would say “Justice!” for his life not being easy, but remember that he did not ask for this mental condition, he showed remorse for what he had done, and he spent 9 years rehabilitating himself. “Well, no one can force him to take his medication now!” Yes, that is true, however it also doesn’t mean that he will stop taking it, or stop working with doctors. All that it means is that he no longer has to deal with the legal system in regards to this crime. I would like to draw a parallel about the issue of taking medication. I am on a very large amount of anti-depressants at the moment. The last time that I was off of them, I decided that I was going to take a pill every time that my boyfriend-at-the-time insulted me, because I couldn’t live with the way he was making me feel about myself. I was close to killing myself. Since getting medicated, I have realized that all of that was my mental illness talking. The medication helps me not want to harm or kill myself (or others), but without it I am in danger. I do not want to be in danger, therefore I will keep taking my pills. It is really that simple, and can be that simple for Will Baker (fka Li). He doesn’t want to hurt people. The last time he was not on medication he killed someone. Therefore, he will stay on his pills. The last thing that I want to talk about is the difference between “justice” “vengeance” and the ability to rehabilitate people. Justice, from a legal standpoint is defined as “n. 1) fairness. 2) moral rightness. 3) a scheme or system of law in which every person receives his/ her/its due from the system, including all rights, both natural and legal.” The system did actually give Vince Li his “due”. He was declared NCR (by the system), spent 9 years in a rehabilitation centre (by the system), and was deemed to be no longer a threat to society (by the system). So when you scream for “justice”, justice was actually served. Vengeance is the word you are actually looking for here. First, it is worth noting that vengeance does not have a legal definition. So we will look at the standard definition: “noun1.infliction of injury, harm, humiliation, or the like, on a person by another who has been harmed by that person; violent revenge:But have you the right to vengeance?2.an act or opportunity of inflicting such trouble: to take one's vengeance. 3.the desire for revenge: a man full of vengeance.4.Obsolete. hurt; injury.5.Obsolete. curse; imprecation.” The desire for revenge. It is understandable for the family members of Tim to seek vengeance, however the rest of us citizens have no right to do so. Once we start seeking out or committing acts of vengeance we are really no better than the criminals themselves, and are in fact trying to live in an anarchy.

Our current legal system works to rehabilitate people. It is why there is a system of parole. Funnily enough, had Li not been deemed NCR, he would have been sent to jail for 2nd degree murder; in Canada that means life in prison with chance of parole between 7-25 years. Parole is granted based on a number of conditions, including chance to reoffend. Li’s doctors have released him based on the collected agreement that he is extremely unlikely to reoffend. So, he could have been released sooner if the “justice” system that people call for worked in their favour.

TL:DR time: Unless you have a medical degree and have worked with Li for a long enough time that you know his condition, how it affects him, and his chances to reoffend, you do not have the authority to speak about whether or not “justice” has been served with his release. You also cannot claim to be an ally to people with mental conditions, and then treat someone the way that you are all treating him. He committed a terrible crime, but was suffering from a terrible illness that he did not ask to have. He has worked towards rehabilitation, and deserves the chance to live a life, however filled with remorse it is, as a mentally healthy man.

Please, think before you judge. Research before you get angry. Think about how all aspects of this case are affected. Be an ally to everyone who suffers from any condition, regardless of the stigma attached to it. And until next time, stay crazy <3

PS: Some of my sources for this post are listed below. https://web.archive.org/web/20150716091637/

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca:80/eng/acts/C-46/

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs397/en/

https://web.archive.org/web/20080810005604/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080805.wbus06/BNStory/National/home

http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1086

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_imprisonment_in_Canada

#mental illness #schizophrenia #ally #research #legal system #rehabilitation #justice #vengence #vince li #will baker #greyhound bus attack #tim mclean

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whatthekpopofficial · 6 years

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Suicide Prevention Awareness: 12 Korean Celebrities Who Tragically Committed Suicide

*Please be aware that this article is a special topic for September, the National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. While we are making the effort to handle this topic with care, some people may find the topic triggering. Suicide prevention hotlines and resources are listed at the bottom of this article. While this entire month is dedicated to suicide prevention awareness, September 10th in particular marks World Suicide Prevention Day. Regardless of your position or status in life, depression is something that can affect any of us. At times, depression, anxiety, and other issues can make life seem truly unbearable, even driving some people to consider suicide. This is something that can affect anyone around the globe, even famous singers or actors. Due to our love of Korean culture, it's easy to focus on the bright and positive aspects of the entertainment industry, forgetting the challenges and pain that can accompany life in the spotlight. When you add this to the normal demands of being a young person these days, it is easy to understand why some people feel so overwhelmed. In fact, suicide is the leading cause of death among Korean people in their teens, twenties, and thirties. While some advancement is finally being made concerning mental health issues in Korea, there is still a long way to go. In order to bring awareness to the rising number of suicides in Korea and around the world, we wanted to talk about some of the most famous celebrities who have chosen this tragic method of coping with their personal issues. We also want to encourage you that you should reach out for help if you're feeling suicidal or know someone who is. If we can assist in any way at WTK, please let us know. Last year, we lost one of our staff members to suicide. As such, suicide prevention is a topic important to our hearts. For further resources, we would also like to refer you to the radio broadcast we held in honor of SHINee's Jonghyun. The broadcast is divided into different segments, when one segment dealing specifically about what to do when you or a loved one is feeling suicidal. Click here to listen to the broadcast. You can find the different topics and their time stamps in the description of the video. In the meanwhile, let's look back at some of the notable cases of suicide in Korea. We remember these lives and mourn their loss after they succumbed to such a horrible thing. Suicide itself is 100% preventable, and we encourage you to reach our for help today! Park Yong Ha (1977-2010)

If you’re a hardcore drama fan, you will have seen this guy somewhere. Park Yong Ha debuted in 1994 and rose to fame in the early 2000s with Winter Sonata, the famous drama co-starring Bae Young Jun and Choi Ji Woo. He became a hit actor and singer in both Korea and Japan. After the successful drama A Man’s Story and his movie The Scam in 2009, the actor was scheduled to star in Comrades in July 2010. Sadly, however, he didn't make it that far. Speculations still surface as to why a successful and well-known actor like Park Yong Ha would make that choice. Some said he was under too much stress after he started managing his own company, others claimed the news of his father’s malignant cancer was the reason, and some simply cried depression. Whether one or more of these reasons contributed to the decision, no one will ever fully know what went on in the mind of the 33-year-old actor. Lee Eun Joo (1980-2005)

Steadily making a name for herself as an actress, Lee Eun Joo killed herself after leaving a note apologizing to her mother for her decision. The actress appeared in many popular films, including Bungee Jumping of Their Own and The Scarlet Letter. She was young and full of potential. So, why? Was it depression? Was it "insomnia after her nude scenes in The Scarlet Letter" as some people claimed? No one will ever truly know. U;Nee (1981-2007)

This beautiful and promising young woman debuted in 2003 as a dance-pop singer. With her debut album, she instantly become well-received by both fans and critics alike. The young artist was also a rapper and went on to make her acting debut as well. A normally shy person, her label soon wanted her to transition into a more sexy genre of music, pushing her to get plastic surgery and changing her looks. Although it wasn't determined that she suffered from depression until after her death, things she had written on her social media page later came to light that indicated she felt overwhelmed and without purpose. After attending a church service in the morning, she decided to take her own life at the age of 25. Ahn Jae Hwan (1972-2008)

Money issues— including a failed business and debtors storming in— was thought to be the reason behind Ahn Jae Hwan’s death. I watched him in Sunflower, and he was one of the few things I liked about the show. The rising star killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning while sitting in his car, first leaving an apology note to his newlywed wife. What makes this so sad is that the actor wasn't found for several weeks, leading people to wonder what took his loved ones so long to find him. Kim Jonghyun (1990-2017)

On December 18, 2017, beautiful and talented artist Kim Jonghyun of SHINee made the decision to end his life. A person who had been very public with his long-term struggle with depression, he left behind several texts and notes that gave a glimpse into his mental state at the time. Asking his sister to tell him he did well and explaining to a friend that he just wasn't supposed to have been a celebrity, he talked about his "devouring depression" and feelings of hopelessness. A beautiful soul who had touched countless lives with his music, art, writing, and more, Jonghyun's death was one of the most shocking and high-profile suicides among Korean celebrities. Jeong Da Bin (1980-2007)

Most famous for Rooftop Cat, Jeong Da Bin committed suicide in the bathroom of her boyfriend’s apartment. The boyfriend stated that Jeong Da Bin was depressed because of lack of work, imprisonment of her manager, and cyber attacks on her appearance. With only the boyfriend's words to go on, no one will ever truly know what motivated this lovely young lady to take her life that day in his bathroom. Kim Seok Hyun (1979-2009)

After getting a late start in his career, Kim Seok Hyun played minor roles in few productions on TV. You might recognise his face without being able to recall exactly where you know him from. At the age of 30, he took his life in his own home. Again, all that was left after his suicide were speculations on what led him to take this extreme measure. Many said it was due to depression from lack of work, but the public will never know. Jang Ja Yeon (1982-2009)

Remember the three bullies in Boys Over Flowers? Jang Ja Yeon was one of them. She landed a CF and few other offers because of the popular drama. She was described as a rising star— beautiful and talented. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, she committed suicide in her family's home. It seemed to be a result of depression, but this time, a sponsor scandal was also involved. In other words, it was said she was being sexually abused by the rich investors and executives of her company due to her "slave" contract. The actress left a long letter before her death, naming the culprits and mentioning that they had physically and sexually abused her under the permission of her agent. The reason behind her suicide definitely sounds plausible, but we may never know for sure as the truth never fully came to light. In the end, only the life of a poor young girl was snatched away. Meanwhile, the agent is still alive and prospering. Woo Seung Yeon (1983-2009)

Failed auditions, anxiety, and depression are what led to the tragic suicide of this young star. In fact, she was already receiving treatment for depression. The ironic part is before her suicide, she sent her sister a message that said, "I’m sorry." She uploaded the word "goodbye" to her personal page and changed the background music to a song called ''Sorry." Her family knew she was getting worse and said so. Sadly, it seems that Woo Seung Yeon knew she needed help, but when that help didn’t arrive, she simply gave up. Roh Moo-hyun (1946-2009)

This low-income farmer was inspired to become a human rights laywer who would eventually even serve jail time as he faced against the powerful to fight for the average men. As such, it should come as no surprise that this man would eventually turn his eyes to politics in an attempt to change his world. He eventually was elected and served as the South Korean president between 2003 to 2008 and gained great popularity among the younger generation in particular. Politics aside, it wasn't until he had retired and was living a quiet life that someone brought up some suspicion that he had accepted a bribe in the past. The charge ignited an investigation and brought him into media's scrutiny in what his own party denounced as unfair and politically-motivated. Suffering from poor health already, the former politician decided to take his own life, leaving behind a note saying that he couldn't face the future and asking people to not blame anyone else for his death. Choi Jin Shil (1968-2008)

Choi Jin Shil will always be named as an iconic actress. "There was no other talent like hers," many people have stated. She starred in many films and drama and was called "The Nation’s Actress." However, her personal life was not easy. Her road manager died. She got married, but her husband turned out to be abusive. She filed for divorce and went through a public custody war, losing sponsors as a result. Her friend Ahn Jae Hwan (included earlier on this list) then committed suicide, and she was even accused of being involved in that. Things got really dirty and it was hard to cope with all of this in the public eye, so she opted out of the situation by choosing suicide, leaving behind her two young children. Tragically, her high-profile suicide resulted in a temporary rise in suicides in Korea for the month after her death. Approximately 700 more people killed themselves in that month than in previous times. The entire tragic situation led the South Korean government to take a stronger stance against malicious and libelous comments from netizens since it was found to have been such a factor in Ms. Choi's suicide. Choi Jin Young (1970-2010)

Choi Jin Shil’s younger brother gained interest from producers because of the fame of his sister. He landed a small role or two, but people eventually lost interest in him as an actor. As a result, he fell into severe depression. He unsuccessfully attempted suicide a few times, but less than two years after the death of his sister, he managed to succeed. He did not blame his sister or his family, but constantly being compared to a highly successful sibling is definitely not the easiest way to live. My humble psychological analysis is that Choi Jin Young had lived completely under the dome of his sister. So when she committed suicide, he couldn’t go on and did the same. He even chose the same suicide method as his sister when he ended his own life.

Some readers might be wondering, "What can we do about it? Why are you telling us this?" Simply put, we can all do something. When we have opinions that aren't so nice, we can keep them to ourselves. We can report the malicious comments by other internet users. We can help clean up the negative comments and prevent whatever terrible effect it has on celebrities. After all, they’re people just like us and each one struggles with their own issues that are often compounded by hateful, mean comments. More than anything, just take a stand when you see malicious comments online since those comments can be such an emotional and mental strain on celebrities. While these beloved celebrities succumbed to suicide, many more have been able to beat it! Celebrities like Brian Joo, Lee Sang Min, SHINee's Key, and many more have all admitted to self-harm or suicidal thoughts. In addition, several of our own staff members at WTK are also attempted suicide survivors. If we can make it, so can you! Please know you are not alone. We should understand that depression can affect us all, but suicide is never the answer. No matter how terrible your own situation is, ending your life is not the best way to deal with your problems. If you or a loved one struggles with suicidal thoughts, please get help immediately by calling 1-800-273-8255 or chatting online with a counselor from the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. For international suicide prevention, please view the list of crisis centers and suicide hotlines in your own country by clicking HERE. If you suspect one of your family members or friends is suicidal, click here to see a list of common signs of suicidal thoughts. You are not alone! Get help today. Let's all work together to stop suicide.

*This article was originally written by author Park Chohwa. Additions have been made by lee1086. Media: As Credited Read the full article

#AhnJaeHwan #ChoiJinShil #globalsuicidepreventionday #kimjonghyun #ParkYongHa #RohMoo-hyun #Shinee #suicidepreventionawareness #u;nee

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spikes-productions · 6 years

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Have you heard that children were separated from their parents under Obama & Clinton? Then you need a little Facts vs Myths lesson.

Michelle Martin, PhD (Cal State, Fullerton) summed up the most important FACTS:

#long reads #karen brown #michelle martin #immigration #america #united states #usa #donald trump #gop #republicans

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madpicks · 7 years

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New Post has been published on https://www.madpicks.com/sports/nfl/15-nfl-stars-completely-destroyed-personal-demons/

15 Would-Be NFL Stars Who Were Completely Destroyed By Personal Demons

Athletes who are involved in the NFL run the risk of harboring personal demons, just like every other member of society. In some cases, they’re able to work through it, get treatment, and continue a productive life on and off the field. Other times however, they’re enslaved to these problems, and it ends up ruining their career in full. They’re never able to recover from their personal problems, and it cost them in a big way.

Unfortunately, many of the NFL players over the years who have dealt with such issues have been among the most talented of their generation. In some cases, they never even got to have a taste of success in the pros because of their personal issues. It’s always a tragic scenario (most of the time) when a talented athlete goes down the wrong path and isn’t able to excel to the fullest extent of their capabilities. Issues like mental health and substance abuse have derailed many careers, and will continue to do so in the future. Let’s take a look at some of the notable names in NFL history who just weren’t able to sustain their careers because of these problems.

Ranked below are 15 would-be NFL stars who were completely destroyed by personal demons.

Aaron Hernandez

Whether or not Hernandez actually had personal demons which caused him to commit the terrible murder, it’s no secret that he wasted away what could have been an all-time great career. He was near-unstoppable at times with the Patriots, and was one of the best tight ends in the league. The truth is, Hernandez always had red flags with his anger, and it became abundantly clear that he wasn’t playing with a full deck most of the time.

Everyone knows the story by now. Convicted or murder, Hernandez was sent to prison to serve a life sentence. Earlier this year, he took his own life while incarcerated. It was a disturbing end to a person who struggled with some degree of mental illness, even if his crimes were committed on his own volition. He’s definitely one of the bizarre character studies in sports over the past decade.

Greg Hardy

Whatever it is that makes Hardy a borderline sadistic person is anyone’s guess, if they aren’t in a medical field. His complete lack of remorse for his actions, along with the actions themselves, have made him one of, if not the single most hated player in the league right now. A phenomenal pass-rushing talent, he wasted his career away because of his horrific abuse towards women, and was never able to recover.

Despite the Cowboys giving him a job in 2015 after the fact, he only lasted a single season, and was essentially forced off the roster by public dissatisfaction. Hardy’s attitude and abusive actions have cost him the accolades of being one of the best defensive players in the game. There’s not likely a team who will be willing to take the risk on him with so many inherent problems to his name.

Johnny Manziel

“Johnny Football” may never play another snap in an NFL uniform, and he really has nobody to blame but himself. Manziel’s partying antics have been put on display since he was at Texas A&M, and haven’t let up no matter what was going on around him. His substance abuse was never concentrated to just one thing; Manziel was simply addicted to nightlife first and foremost. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of not learning the NFL game, and he was quickly out of the league.

It’s hard to feel bad for Manziel, who has had every advantage to make himself a successful football player. Wealthy family, good college program, quality coaches; none of it has made a bit of difference, and his chances of getting back into anything athletic for a career are swirling the drain with each passing day.

Aldon Smith

A former top-10 draft pick, it’s easy to forget that there was a time when Smith was one of the absolute best pass-rushers in the league. He helped lead the 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance in 2012, and everyone figured that he’d be an elite player for the rest of his career. Instead, he checked into rehab in the middle of the 2013 season, and was suspended for a good portion of the 2014 season.

Smith was just never able to recover from his substance abuse. He’s currently on the Raiders, but the quality of his play has dropped dramatically, and he’s still dealing with suspension issues, and recurring problems. He probably won’t last much longer, and is a big disappointment after being such a promising young player.

Justin Blackmon

A game-breaking receiver at Oklahoma State who many thought would be an elite talent in the NFL, Blackmon fizzled out after just two seasons in the league. Struggles with substance abuse, and numerous arrests followed, and it’s clear that Blackmon just wasn’t going to be able to make a career in the NFL.

He’s still struggling with the same issues today, and unlike someone like Josh Gordon, has pretty much given all hope entirely about ever playing again on an NFL field. It’s sad to say, because Blackmon had a chance to be a truly marquee receiver in the league, but he wasn’t able to get his consumption under control, or get rid of it all together.

Ryan Leaf

Selected 2nd overall in the 1998 draft, there were some people who claimed that Leaf would be a better NFL quarterback than Peyton Manning. Quickly after joining the Chargers he started spiraling out of control, and wasn’t able to shake clear issues with anger, and lingering issues with substance abuse. Leaf was a mess, and he would be gone from San Diego after a disastrous pair of seasons as their starting quarterback.

The issues never seemed to cease with Leaf over the years, and he’s had several run-ins with the law well after his playing days ended in 2002. He may never have ended up as an all-time great, but with less outside distractions he could have been a solid one. It just wasn’t in the cards, and he remains one of the biggest draft busts of his era.

Ricky Williams

He’s not an outright failure of a professional player like some others here, but Williams definitely squandered away a good amount of his potential. After a few very productive seasons coming into the league, Williams tested positive for marijuana, and a slew of suspensions and controversy began surrounding him. He missed a year with the Dolphins, ended up trying a stint in the CFL, and then came back to the NFL several years later, in much less effective fashion. It was a mess.

Williams was never the same once the suspensions started rolling, and even though he would play in the NFL up through the 2011 season, he wasn’t the same player that he was before. A solid career could have ended up being a great one had he not made smoking weed his primary concern as an NFL player.

Randy Gregory

There were legitimate concerns about Gregory coming into the league in 2015, but in true Dallas Cowboys fashion, they opted to take the risk and draft him anyway. Going in the 2nd round, Gregory was slated to be a boost to the Cowboys’ pass-rush, and their defense as a whole. After some injuries got him early on, he suffered numerous suspensions for substance abuse, and that’s the status on him now as we speak.

Despite being a legitimately great college talent, he couldn’t keep it under control in the pros, and the Cowboys’ worst fears were realized. Whether Gregory plays another snap in the league or not, he’s not likely to make much of an impact given how much time he’s lost to suspensions.

Art Schlichter

Trying to reclaim the days of Johnny Unitas, the then-Baltimore Colts drafted Schlichter with the 4th-overall pick in the 1982 draft. It was a high-profile selection at the time, as Schlichter had been an outright star while at Ohio State. He was considered to be one of the best young quarterbacks in the country at the time.

Unfortunately, his vice was gambling, and it quickly got out of control once he got into the professional ranks. Suspended for the entire 1983 season because of it, once he got back into the NFL he was never the same. He committed a bevy of felonies on his way out of the league, most of which were directly related to gambling. It was a serious problem, and one that he never really recovered from.

Todd Marinovich

Marinovich was supposed to be the future franchise quarterback for the Raiders when they drafted him in 1991. He lit up the college game at USC, and was slated to have a great NFL career on the horizon. What followed was nothing more than a classic problem, cocaine being the main vice in question.

He wasn’t able to sustain an NFL career, but did manage to bounce around to peripheral leagues here and there. The drug problems never went away however, and his career was a mere shell of what it could have been had he not gone that route. He’s currently facing a methamphetamine charge that could land him in jail. Just a sheer waste of talent for this one.

Josh Gordon

In the 2013 season, Gordon may have been the best young wide receiver in football. It was his coming out party with the Browns, and he racked up monster numbers on his way to a Pro Bowl appearance. Everything seemed like it was on the up-and-up, and that he would be a marquee NFL star for years to come. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way.

The next season in 2014, he was hit with a year-long suspension for driving under the influence in North Carolina. From there it was all downhill. Gordon faced additional suspensions, and was never able to get his substance abuse under control, for a long enough time to be reinstated long-term in the NFL. As it stands, it’s unlikely he ever plays another snap, after being one of the most promising young players.

Rae Carruth

Carruth was a wide receiver for the Panthers in the late-’90s, who conspired to murder his girlfriend who was pregnant with his child in 1999. In simply one of the most tragic stories involving an NFL player, whatever would prompt Carruth to do such a horrible thing is beyond comprehension. As a 1st-round pick of Carolina, it was a shocking development for one of the most notable young players in the league.

Now, he’s looking at an expected release date in 2018, after being sentenced in the year 2000. There’s not much in the way of recurring personal problems here. Carruth simply snapped one day and was the catalyst of a terrible murder. Obviously, his football career ended right away.

Donte Stallworth

Appearing on seemingly a different roster every season he was in the NFL, Stallworth was one of the league’s most reckless players when he was in it. He was convicted of DUI manslaughter in 2009, and struggled with substance abuse for the majority of his career. While it didn’t derail his career entirely, he never was able to live up to his potential, because it was always clear that he had priorities other than excelling at football.

Ultimately, he never did fully crack, and he didn’t truly succumb to any one aspect of his personal demons. But it’s safe to say that his career would have been much better off had he not had the struggles that he while simultaneously in the prime of his career. There was a lot of wasted potential when it came to Stallworth.

Lawrence Phillips

Phillips’ story is one of the most tragic in league history, and it was truly a horrific demise for one of the game’s brightest young talents. He just wasn’t able to shake the substance abuse, and even though he flashed brilliance during his brief time with the Rams, that was about the extent of his professional career. He became a journeyman soon after, and bounced around the league to no avail.

After retiring from football, things went from bad to worse. A bevy of arrests, assault charges, and the continued substance abuse all had a hand in ruining Phillips’ life, and landing him in jail. It was there that he unfortunately committed suicide in 2016. It was really just a nightmare of a story involving a player who could have been one of the league’s best of the Y2K Era.

Maurice Clarett

Perhaps the most popular college football player of the late-’90s, Clarett projected to be a transcendent superstar when he was at Ohio State. There were warning signs even then that Clarett was a deeply disturbed person, having problems with anger and attitude, but those issues and others came to light when he moved to Los Angeles to train for the NFL Combine.

Clarett developed a serious problem with drugs and alcohol while on the West Coast, and by the time he was drafted by the Broncos, he was already in the throes of addiction. He spent one training camp in Denver, but never was able to shake his problems, and was promptly cut in 2005. Other problems such as gun charges, armed robbery and significant prison time awaited Clarett after he was done with his very brief stint in the NFL. With a DUI arrest as late as 2016, it’s clear that he hasn’t been successfully rehabilitated.

Clarett represents perhaps the quickest fall from grace in football history.

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#NFLBusts #NFL

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pinkxsheets-blog · 7 years

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she gives me money (when I’m in need)

Theresa May and Diane Abbott are women of very different beliefs. They are members of each other’s’ opposition parties, and our platform has pretty vocally supported Abbott’s (Labour); having said that, the two women, along with every other female politician, will share something in common. The incredibly misogynistic coverage of their careers and work in the media.

Now, of course it’s not as if male politicians get incredibly favourable coverage and female politicians don’t; no, the world has a fairly united hatred for all politicians in the world ever, and the media aids this. The difference comes when politicians mess up, act horrendously, and participate in unspeakable corrupt scandals. Then, there comes a feeling when you read about it in the paper. If it’s a man, there is outrage, sparked by the disgruntled anger that he’ll make an un-welcomed return in the future, after disappearing for a while.

“He’ll be back in a few months, the prick” someone said of Michael Gove to me as the Brexit referendum result came in and we were watching him, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and Nigel Farage slowly flee the mess they’d created. And hey, now that guy’s in charge of the environment so like. That’s a thing that happened.

When a female politician participates in her share of world dominant Bond villain esque plans? Well. She’s blood in the water. And not only that, she won’t simply be attacked by virtue of her god awful policies- she’ll also simply be attacked for being a woman. Every single thing she could possibly have said that would have been a marker for feminism or the cause of gender equality will suddenly be discredited; a famous woman who fails even slightly is shamed, shunned, and called a heinous bitch for years to come. Just look at Thatcher (not to call her a feminist, but as the longest serving British PM to have not only been kicked out by a cabinet of men, but referred to as a witch by the rest of the country, even after her death, one has to wonder why no one has been able to kick out Donald Trump in the same way they simply got rid of the so called Iron Lady.)

Looking at the other end of the political spectrum, let one consider Dianne Abbott. While Abbott has actually been re-elected in her constituency of Hackney North and Stoke Newington, she has had a fair share of criticisms in the campaign. Which, in my opinion is of course, correct: a number of PR blunders such as hers shouldn’t have been made given that she was a Shadow Home Secretary prospect, so yes by all means chastise her for not being as prepared as she should have been. But the amount of coverage she received was so hellbent on racist and misogynistic slurs, as well as the shock and horror that Jeremy Corbyn wanted to sleep with her (because of course, there’s a woman, so there has to be a romantic past dragged up,) was appalling. And although we’re supporters of the Labour party, we find it pretty shady that the campaign was willing to support Corbyn through all the abuse he’d faced in being called a “terrorist sympathiser” but was hesitant to offer protection to Abbott’s mishaps. Abbott wrote, in an article for the Guardian at the beginning of this year that previously she had kept quiet about the misogyny and sexism she felt daily, being an MP (and the truth is, it’s unacceptable that she was made to feel that way but there we go,) but decided to be vocal about the abuse she receives because she fears that our trajectory towards equality, whether it was on the incline or not, is seriously slipping: “But if online commentary and the rise in racist incidents are anything to go by, there is a danger that Brexit could give some people permission to express sentiments that are anything but progressive and internationalist.” Abbott opens up that she receives “racist and sexist abuse online on a daily basis. I have had rape threats, death threats, and am referred to routinely as a bitch and/or n*****, and am sent horrible images on Twitter.”

And when people were quick to point out that she has had to deal with misogyny and racism? There comes another problem. People see behaviour like this and huff and grumble “oh well they wanted equality didn’t they? and now they have it, they’re being criticised in the same way a man would.” No.

There’s an address JFK made in 1963 about civil law, and the need to end racism in the United States. (It was actually quite a good speech; but what fundamentally pisses me off is that it’s still relevant.) He mentioned in his speech the need for not only a change in legislation, but a change in universal institutional morality. And that’s a large chunk of what is needed here. It’s all very well to put women in positions of power, but this is often a scenario in which women are expected to see this as a treat. As a special occasion, and if she makes one misstep? She loses the privilege of her special position. She’s expected to be twice as good as a man, to be EXCEPTIONAL, just so she can maintain what most mediocre male politicians have for granted. A safety net. A vague, if not guaranteed reassurance that when shit hits the fan, they’ll be supported. There’s a difference between treating someone equally and working under the guise of actually supporting someone. A moral reframing in which we truly see everyone as equal and not a special guest starring role to promote diversity, only to be kicked out once they get low ratings.

The truth is, a woman’s gender is a chip to be played by politicians in parties comprised mostly by men, until it isn’t any more, and due to systemic misogyny in place, women end up kicked to the ground. A cabinet full of men will pimp and preen their female leader, exhibit her as the living proof of feminism, and push her off a cliff the moment she’s despised.

It’s not uncommon for politicians to behave abhorrently, but it’s even less often that we see non-femme abominations plunder the person’s career. Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Steve Bannon, Bill Clinton: all of these men have suffered incredible “PR blunders” yet all I see is a re-reckoning and resurfacing of their roles in politics. Not. one. woman. Tony Blair, who famously sent the whole country into a war with Iraq, came back into the political scene with the UK’s general election this year and even that guy was lent an ear, but god forbid Theresa May say anything stupid. (This isn’t in any way a defence of May’s policies, or a sympathy based on her party: I think she should definitely be criticised- but criticised on the basis of her political actions and her political actions only.)

One must then consider who's to blame, and who's to address the issue and through what means, and in that, to achieve what ends? Is it up to the media? Is it up to the male politicians to give up some of the space they dominate? Is it up to women to take that space away from them? And ofcourse just as with anything, the answer isn't so simple. And at the end of the day it's about everyone in society taking collective action against a system that we all (whether willingly or not) contribute to. It's about every single person dismantling a mindset in which this is how the world IS and realising they can be a momentum of change for it by challenging governments, participating in grassroots movements and becoming activists in their own right. We must all be there in solidarity of groups marginalised and pushed aside by society, and it's up to every single one of us to stand up, admit a corrupt system that is inherently built on misogynistic standards, and demand its dismantling. Women, in most career paths, but especially politics, have to navigate the waters carefully. And the thing is, this is true for all politicians. But how many women do you think don’t fuck up in politics because they don’t take the risks they simply can’t afford in such a masculine political climate? This was broadly spoken about during Clinton’s campaign against Trump of course, so it isn’t necessarily a brand new perspective or a fantastical new way of looking at things, but what it is is a stinging reminder that modern women are held to ancient standards. If you do something incredibly stupid, expect to serve a night in jail if you’re a man, but a life sentence if you’re a woman.

-Elmira Tanatarova

Sources:

Abbott, D. (2017). I fought racism and misogyny to become an MP. The fight is getting harder | Diane Abbott. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/14/racism-misogyny-politics-online-abuse-minorities [Accessed 8 Jun. 2017].

#feminism #intersectional feminism #theresa may #diane abbott #Jeremy Corbyn #david cameron #boris johnson #michael gove #labour #conservative #racism #misogyny #politics #british #General Election

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