My father was in the war. I was a very small girl who was sent to live with my grandparents , a piece of luck I still thank God for now I'm old.
When my dad came home after being a sergeant in the army there was no work. He became a labourer in all sorts of places and this fostered his political beliefs. He was a fully paid up communist and spent much of his time trying to get me away from the church and into the party!
He failed in this and I can say with all truth that my views are my own, tempered with some of his observations but fully thought out by me as a girl and through life.
I would hate anyone to use my fathers views as a stick to beat me with. His ideas were formed during the crucible of war. Mine are different, formed in the aftermath.
To see a national newspaper trying to smear a politician by using his fathers views against him is a new low in politics. To see a government minister defending it by talking about the freedom of the press is even more appalling.
A line has been reached and crossed, from debate to mud hurling.
Our parents, long dead have our love, respect and gratitude......even the ones who least deserve it...the paper involved should apologise and so should those who support them.
We are what our life's experience has made us and our parents certainly play a part in this but as adults we stand on our own feet, with our own beliefs.....which of us would want to be judged on our parents standards? I certainly wouldn't!
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2 comments:
Well said Jean. Politics is sadly a dirty game, and add the biased media to the equation and you have all the ingredients for this sort of smear campaign.
Whatever influences our parents brought to bear on our own thinking, we have. as you have said, free will and a lifetimes' experience to mould our own judgement.
If we must have mud slinging, at least let it be for our own transgressions, not those no longer able to defend themselves.
I think that the Daily Smell has gone way beyond what is honest and decent and has descended to the gutter, or perhaps the sewer.
They have debased journalism, perhaps even more than the episodes with the News of the World, so that's saying something.
Time to ban the paper methinks.
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