and perhaps that is what it is that makes them special, they are just farmers, factory workers and everyday people who answer the call and usually for very low wages.
back in the 70s I was on supplementary benefit, I was serving in NI at the time but my wages were so low that I fell into the poverty area where the DHSS stepped in and paid the difference to my salary they deemed was the minimun needed to survive.
In my opinion all human beings deserve shelter food and warmth.
And I would agree with the sentiment Ben. It's interesting that quite often those who would extend their support and compassion to one group would not extend it to another in very similar circumstances. For example ( and Mids, I know you've never said this so no need to take me to task for it ) Mids mentions soldiers who've succumbed to alcohol and drug abuse after their exit from the services. IME many would feel sympathy there and offer their support for the project where they might be much less inclined to offer that same support for, and would even go so far as to dismiss and condemn a very similar group of drug and alcohol users in other circumstances. Buddhism teaches infinite compassion. It makes no distinction between the deserving and undeserving. One can not be said to be a truly compassionate human being if one is selective in its application.
Quite.
I think it's selective compassion that yanks my chain.
ok so being a pedestrian as dangerous, somewhere between 5000 and 6000 die each year in the UK alone, but I have never seen "pedestrian" advertised as a job, people do not choose to be a pedestrian instead of a soldier, refuse collector, firefighter or office PA, so cannot really be compared as a "dangerous job".
Soldiers, refuse collectors, firefighters, office clerks, lawyers and check-out girls are also pedestrians.
Yep, there is a common misconception that the homeless are drinkers, druggies or loonies.
Many are, but that's the chicken not the egg.
Complex and individual are the reasons I have observed.
They were not killed by the people they were sent to protect, you are getting that mixed up with the soldiers killed in NI after troops were initially sent in at the request of the Catholic population fearing more attacks by the Protestant population.
Sadly many British servicemen have been killed by the same method, insurgents dressing in Afghan Police uniforms or Army uniforms posing as such and not as Taliban which is what they actually were.
It is true that many people in this Country do feel let down by the French who ignored all advice given them by the British prior to the invasion by Germany, they had built their Maginot Line and believed it was enough, they dismissed British fears of a 2nd attack through Belgium as the Germans had done in WW1.
When it happened they abondoned the BEF quickly surrendered and many took the side of the Germans against the British and allied forces as Vichy forces, they refused to sink their warships or hand them over to the British culminating in a sad waste of life as the British were forced to remove their threat.
To this day some hate the British for that action, an action against a hostile force who has given their allegience to Germany.
Whilst there were and are many great French subjects who are happy to work with and alongside Britain there seems to be an awfull lot that resent what happened in WWII and go out of their way to make things difficult for us or at the very least will not support us.
Blimey we are even extending our hate of foreigners to our allies during a world wide conflict today.
What you may be forgetting Jed is the political situation in France at the time.
Whereas the UK had relative political stability, France did not. The 4th Republic was a complete mess, almost hardly a week going by before the Government changed again and/or the President resigned.
Little wonder then Paris capitulated and Petain was given free reign to do the budding of the Reich.
But, there were many brave Frenchmen (and women) for whom this was not good enough.
