Every TEN days in America, this number of children die, or are killed, by child abuse.
click to enlarge
In case you can’t count, there are FIFTY children in that image.
One child dies from abuse every FIVE HOURS within the borders of this ‘superpower’ nation. That is the worst record of child abuse in the industrialized world.[1]
You’ll not have heard Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News, or Scott Pelley of CBS, giving you those statistics. It’s too shocking for the delicate ears of Americans.
It took the BBC to break this story eight months ago. How many Americans are aware of these facts?
Michael Petit, the president of Every Child Matters:
…other rich nations have social policies that provide child care, universal health insurance, pre-school, parental leave and visiting nurses to virtually all in need.
In the US, when children are born into young families not prepared to receive them, local social safety nets may be frayed, or non-existent. As a result, they are unable to compensate for the household stress the child must endure.
In the most severe situations, there is a predictable downward spiral and a child dies. Some 75% of these children are under four, while nearly half are under one.
What the US media will frequently divulge to you is the magnificence and power of the American military machine, and how lethal US drone strikes are proving against the people of Pakistan or Yemen.
The United States spends five times more on its military than the next highest spender, China.
Isn’t it time this truly backward nation got its priorities sorted out?
There are no Christians at Sparrow Chat. There is, however, a working knowledge of that accruement of old tales from a variety of sources, known collectively as the ‘Bible’; the ‘Holy Bible’; the ‘Book’, and even more mythologically, the ‘Word of God’.
Whatever one’s position on the accuracy, or otherwise, of this accretion it seems logical to expect those self-designated ‘followers’ of the book’s main starring character to act in accordance with their leader’s Divine instruction.
Even the Sparrow Chat pagans are familiar with the first, and we are told, greatest commandment, as set out in the Book of Matthew, Chap 22: 35-39:
One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Why, then, did it come as no surprise to read this recently, from ABC News:
Flaring tensions led to violence and an arrest in Michigan this weekend as members of Christian missionary groups turned up to protest at the largest public gathering of Arab-Americans in the U.S.
Christian protesters traveled across the country to Dearborn, Mich., where they taunted attendees and even held a severed pig’s head for three days at the annual Arab International Festival. The protests turned violent Sunday, and by the end of the day as many as 10 people facing disorderly conduct or assault charges, according to ABC News Detroit affiliate WXYZ.
“You’re going to burn in hell,” a missionary reportedly yelled at a group of Arab-American boys, while other protesters held anti-Muslim signs that made bigoted remarks about Islam and its prophet Mohammed, including “Islam is a religion of blood and murder” and “Muhammad (Islam’s prophet) is a … liar, false prophet, murderer, child molesting pervert.”[1]
It’s no surprise because it’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from certain sections of America’s so-called ‘Christian’ community. We’ve already got the lunatic, Fred Phelps, his satanic daughter, and various wacky hangers-on from the self-styled Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, spitting hate at anyone not conforming to their crackpot ideologies – which is just about everyone…
…so it barely raises an eyebrow when a load of ‘Christian missionaries’ rampage across the country hurling hate at their fellow Americans for daring to hold a differing religious viewpoint from their own.
Though, one has to question just what these ‘missionaries’ are teaching their converts about Christ’s message. Obviously, not to ‘Love Thy Neighbor’.
Only in America is this sort of hatred tolerated under the guise of…what? Freedom of speech? Religious freedom? Defending God’s Word?
Or, is it just another form of racial hatred and bigotry, for which this nation is so renowned, wrapped up in the guise of that eternal excuse for a whipping-boy, religion?
Thankfully, there are still a few of us pagans left only too happy to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, and love our neighbors – the only proviso, they’re not members of the Westboro Baptist Church, or Christian missionaries hell-bent on a hate crusade.
The American media has been making hay out of the financial problems faced by Europe, stressing – no doubt, at the behest of their corporate masters – that the crisis in Europe is responsible for the ongoing problems with the US economy.
As always, the American media is afflicted by serious short-term memory loss, a fact quickly pointed out in no uncertain terms today by the president of the European Commission, Jose Barroso…
…when asked by an American journalist at the G20 summit in Mexico, “Why should North Americans risk their assets to help Europe?”
Barroso:
Frankly, we are not coming here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to handle the economy.
By the way this crisis was not originated in Europe […] Seeing as you mention North America, this crisis originated in North America and much of our financial sector was contaminated by, how can I put it, unorthodox practices, from some sectors of your financial market.”
Go, go, Jose! It’s about time someone over there told the truth to those over here, instead of grovelling and kissing Lady Liberty’s feet at every opportunity, as practiced by every British prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, while transformed into an art-form by the UK’s latest apology for a political leader, the oh-so-simpering, David Cameron.
Europe’s financial crisis was sparked by corrupt US politicians who slyly deregulated the financial sector, allowing crooked bankers free reign to make themselves ever wealthier, by illegally gambling away the savings of US and European citizens.
At last, someone in authority has had the guts to stand up and tell it as it is.
