Rally 4 Dec, Melbourne. – Inquiry into Catholic Church, Sexual Assault and Suicide Prevention.

24 11 2011

Hi one and all!

You should be receiving either 2 attachments or 2 flyers in the body of this email. If not, please let me know. (Not included with G+/Facebook post)

I am organising a rally on the steps of Parliament on Sunday 4 December, 12 noon for about an hour.

The reasons are to:

1. Continue the push to have the details of the people who suicided in the years following clergy sexual assault to be handed over to the coroner for re-investigation. Things are at a standstill.

2. For the State Government to hold an urgent independent Inquiry into Catholic clergy sexual assault. Other than waiting for the outcomes of the Cummins Inquiry (which may address three issues – mandatory reporting; Working with Children Act 2005 requirements; reporting of child abuse to secular authorities) there is no word from the Attorney-General about an independent Inquiry.

3. The other essential reforms are listed on the second flyer.

The state government’s decision a few weeks to put on hold a public inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is unconscionable and carries a serious risk of further suicides by victims of clergy sexual assault.

After publicity a few months ago about 26 suicides in Ballarat and Box Hill of young men in the years following catholic clergy sexual assaults, family members of more victims came forward about a loved one committing suicide after being abused by clergy. This brings the above number to 35. But clergy abuse-related suicides have not necessarily ended. Many impact statements from other victims of convicted paedophile Robert Best recently revealed ongoing suicidal thoughts and tendencies. And the above number refers to victims of just two clergy.

The church continues to sit on its hands and the state government, which has full knowledge of these facts, is employing delaying tactics. The Attorney-General, it seems, is not taking these issues very seriously at all.

Thanks a lot and look forward to seeing you there.

Any problems with attachments, please let me know.

The best.

Judy

JUDY COURTIN
0418 329 049





My Short Fuse

12 02 2011

The PE teacher at high-school, who I almost bit on the ankle once, said that if we should ever feel angry, we should beat up our pillows… I was against that, for one thing, I’m a passive sort of fellow who rarely go angry… I think it’s because I’m large. You never see Clydesdale horses who are pissed off, they’re calm and together, while Shetlands bite. It’s the same with Dogs… Nine times out of ten it’s the little dog who’s full of agro, while your larger dog couldn’t care less.

And I am passive… oh you noticed that bit about taking a chunk out of the PE teachers ankle, eh? well yes, there was that, In the 80s Physical Education was a bit like boot camp, do this, do that, twenty pushups from you for doing the wrong thing… it was supposed to cultivate respect, or something… But I just thought he was a prick.

One day I was made to do these pushups for some crap I had apparently done, and he was standing, right there, within easy reach, and I was tempted, oh so sorely tempted to sink my teeth into his ankle, seriously too, drawing blood and all.

I was mostly angry with him, I hated sports and PE, and I hated wasting my time with it when I could’ve been laying around in the library, absorbing a book on inventions.

I stopped bringing my uniform, and kept saying “I forgot it, sir” which really meant “I didn’t bring it, you skinny cunt, I don’t want to join in”.

Once he bought me a huge pair of shorts, which would have fitted Dumbo, and asked me to put them on… I was torn between wearing them and having the balls to say that I wouldn’t… but years later realised what I shoud’ve done was streak naked through the high-school, who’s main building seperated each classroom with massive sheets of glass, making sure that everyone would’ve got a good view… and I would’ve been expelled, a good job too, I hated the place something fierce.

Sometimes I think that I am an angry person, that deep inside something is bubbling away like a sleeping volcano that may erupt.

I have no tolerance for religion anymore, it’s something that got in my way, stunted my views, tripped me up, blocked my path and basically made life difficult.

When I aired my views to my dear but brainwashed Mum, She yelled out “You’re a Heathen, Just like your Father”, What could a kid do? Although there were times that Mum raised her own doubts.

Dad used to say that he thought the Bible was “A big fish story”.

I highly suspect the reason I was packed off to Sunday School when I could have spent the day resting, was Mum was having problems with my emerging sexuality, and wanted to put the fear of God into me… not that the sunday school people were like that, they were pretty nice people, Not the fire and brimstone type.

Or it was to do with My Cousin who was going through relationship problems, so they’d send all the kids to sunday school to give them a free hours woman to woman chat.

There was a touch of tradition there too, Mum and my Sister had attended, and Mum had a family background with the Salvos and their band.

The first time I saw cancer, it was with Laddie, my very special collie x shepherd, who was my right arm, rather like Katie is today, it was always Laddie and I who did things together.

Laddie taught me responsibility.

Then the cancer came along, and he literally mented like an ice-cream in the sun, I prayed and prayed for him, but nothing could be done, and in the end he died at the vets surgery, just an hour before he got the needle.

I saw a tumour grow in Timothy, a lovely cat, this ball grew inside him at frightening speed, and there was nothing I could do about it, He was put down too.

The next was Dad, who writhed in pain in bed, he had tubes hanging out of him, and there was this smell, it’s always the same smell, like rotting wood, I know what cancer smells like now, I’m too familiar with it, it lingers in the room.

Dad would rush to the toilet and cry out in pain as he tried to move his bowels, there was a mess on his hands, on the walls, a pervasive odour of urine in stained Pyjamas. Dad was a giant, full of brawn and it whittled him down to this, there were prayers again, not that any of them did any good.

Benny, My lovely Malamute, which Dad gave to me after Laddie passed on, was out gentle giant, a loving being who adored everyone, including cats, especially cats, but never other dogs, even females. He taught me how to be open, and be myself, and not worry what others thought, Benny was the escense of Wolfie, had it not been for him, I would never have come this far. He could really let rip with his deep howls, which were useful as Mum lost most of her hearing in the weaving mills years before, She couldn’t always hear the phone ring, but Benny could, and it would get him howling… “What did the phone say?” We’d ask him, and he’d howl in reply… Visitors loved the show, and Benny was always very keen to show off to people.

Benny got cancer, and I prayed, I prayed a lot, but he withered away until eventually his back legs couldn’t hold him, he cried as the vet examined him in our Bathroom, He couldn’t move. His cries sounded like “Oh No!, Oh No!, Oh No!” It was like someone was mourning a child who had just been run over by a train, the sound stabbed me like a knife.

He was given the “green needle” and off he went, we carried him off in a bag.

There was myself, who I’ve written about before, so we’ll skip this.

Then I smelt that smell in Mums Room, That same musty odour, and I told her it was there, I knew that one of us had it, or the carpet was damp, I hoped for the latter, but it wasn’t long before Mum passed on.

Then the phone went one night and it was my Sister, She had Ovarian Cancer… She fought it for over a year, and I really thought she was gaining th upper hand, but she didn’t. Three lots of chemo I think she had, three lots?
I could barely handly one lot… I didn’t think She was as strong as that, and was amazed with her fight, but it was a fight that she lost, and she was cremated last September.

So don’t talk to me about how great your God is, how merciful, and how wonderful he is, there was no help from above. If God was so great, then why did we get cancer in the first place? why were we all forced to suffer? why was I allowed to remain alive even though all my family are dead?

Religion is my trigger now, it sets me off quicker than anything.

I despise it.

God botherers on twitter get a mouthful of abuse if they try to suggest that as an athiest, I’m wrong, I’m not wrong, I know from painful experience that I’m not wrong.

I hate being angry, I really do… there was a time that I was more tolerant, but I can’t be now.

In my opinion, religion has held back science to such a degree that had it been allowed, then perhaps medicine may have been decades ahead of itself, and perhaps there would have already been a cure, perhaps… my family would have still been alive.

I seethe with rage everytime some nut says that “Evolution is just a theory”.

Personally I think Science ought to be using a new word, call it a “fact” instead, get rid of that stupid word, why is science so precious about it anyway, If the whole of Australia suddenly feels that what we used to call biscuits are actually Cookies (Because as you know, The Americans are ALWAYS right, and as a second class country, we’re just not as good as them, they just know better) Then “Theory” can be changed to “FACT.

Science can do this, because unlike some people, we have that flexibility.

So I fight religion now, each and everytime I come up against it, I blog on athiesm, I retweet stories about how catholic priests rape kids and treat Homosexuals poorly, claiming they spread AIDS while simultaniously banning condoms, I post scientific literature on Facebook and discuss it in science forums, I add my voice to the many who are waking up from history and seeing the logical truth which we can clearly see in our age.

Religion is dying, allow it to die, it’s a sad relic of our tribal history.

So please forgive my little explosions on twitter and other places, I really hate being angry, but these days I am just a little more bitter than I’ve been before.

Wolfie!





Mary Mackillop’s day off.

17 10 2010

And so we have our first saint, what a load of bollocks.

It’s 2010 and still the world clings to religion, what a sorry sight.

You may wonder what I have against religion, other than the wars which were started because of it, the people who were tortured because of it, the priests who raped little boys.

I’m against it because it’s held back science for hundreds of years, just think, if religion hadn’t been there to stop scientific discovery, then we may have already had cures for AIDS, Cancer or Blindness… but no no, You shalt not do this or that, but it’s fine to slaughter a few thousand who worship the other God, but we can’t tinker with a few stem cells which might improve someones health.

When poor Galileo saw that the Earth really did revolve around the sun did the Catholic Church, say “Wow, that’s Amazing” and pat him on the back? No, The Catholics told him to take it all back, say it wasn’t true (even though it was) and even threatened to whack the poor fellow in a dungeon.

Leonardo Da Vinci was very interested in anatomy, and stole bodies to look inside and see what made people tick, if he’d been discovered who knows what might have happened to him.

These men were not content to just go along like sheep and believe any cock and bull story that the church threw at them.

I have a lot of trouble with the story of Noah, basically because if you were from the Middle East some two thousand years ago, you would have been forgiven for thinking that there was perhaps about two hundred or so animal species in the world, and that you could possibly get them all loaded onto a boat, they didn’t have TV then and perhaps education was lacking.

But I defy anyone, apart from naturalists, to sit and watch a good David Attenborough doco and be familiar with every creature shown.

Estimates say that there may be about two million animal species on the planet (google it), therefore if there is two each (yes even two snails, as you still need two to mate) that means that Noah would have had to stuff FOUR MILLION animals onto his boat, and it still had to float.

Despite the fact that Mary was probably quite a nice lady who did her best for people, and therefore deserves respect, I find this whole canonisation thing frustrating when these same people who won’t stop bleeting about saints and gods and all kinds of gobbledegook can’t seem to understand that Stem Cell research could save a lot of genuine horrors and agony which people are experiencing at this very minute, and stopping this research has to be some sort of crime that I hope people in the future decry us for.

“Why on earth did they not push ahead with medical research” they’ll ask “If they had AIDS, MS and Cancer, Why were they so busy worrying about invisible people in the sky?”

Fortunately, despite the church, in some ways we have pressed ahead, and I thank Nicola Tesla for his invention which produced X-Rays, which eventually lead to Radiotherapy, and I suppose Chemotherapy was more of a combined effort between a lot of wonderful minds… those people and those inventions saved my life.

I give credit to my Surgeon, who sadly passed away due to the effects of Bowel Cancer himself, A heartfelt thankyou to Joe Tjandra

And also to my Oncologist, Peter Gibbs.

Had science been further along, perhaps I still might have had My beautiful parents, My Dad had extensive cancer all through him, believed to have started in his prostate. Mum had something that we suspect was cancer, but she died before diagnosis. My Sister put up a magnificent fight but still lost her battle of about 18 months with ovarian cancer.

I have also lost my dear animals because of that bloody disease. Benny the Malamute who died a terrible death. The cancer had got into his spine, and he was unable to walk… naturally at this point, he was in serious pain and had to be put down, it was one of the worst days of my life, I still hear his cries of agony even now.

Laddie was another who had it, My beautiful German Shepherd cross, such a good friend should never have had to go through what he did.

One of my cats, Timothy, swelled to the size of a bowling ball, his tumour grew at a frightening speed, he was also put down.

Another cat, Splinter, had feline AIDS, and although he fought for a year (he recovered for those months) it soon caught up with him and he died under a tree in the back yard.

Pray? oh yes I prayed, I prayed my tits off…I prayed for all of them, not that it did any good.

To you who push religion down peoples throats, whatever brand it may be, I have no respect for you, but I do have some contempt.

For you are holding us back, you are causing the pain, the disease to continue, the wars to erupt, for people to continue to believe in things that are no more real than the tooth fairy or a bunny who lays chocolate eggs (wrapped in foil of course, his arse must be sore).

If the rapture finally does come and take all you true believers away, how extraordinarily wonderful it will be to be finally free of lunatics.

Wolfie!








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