Monday 31 October 2011

We all know someone who could work but doesn't - Don't we?It gives him joy and purpose

Well, there's that Jim at number 27. Have you seen his garden?? Out there all weathers he is. It's like the bleedin Chelsea Flower Show. Now you can't tell me he couldn't work? 


Jim is 62. He has epilepsy. He was born with it and back in the 50s, most people still thought you were possessed or evil if they saw you having a fit. His mother never used to take him out for fear he would have a seizure in public. He's never been able to drive. He gets "warnings" before the 4 or 5 seizures a week he has, allowing him to get inside to somewhere safe. No-one ever sees his disability - he wouldn't dream of talking about it with a neighbour.

He still never leaves his home. The shame he grew up with never really left him. His garden is his life. It gives him joy and purpose. Something beautiful where he never feels lonely or ashamed.

It's just got ridiculous! There's this girl in our village - never done a day's work in her life....and she jogs!! Hours she runs up and down with those earplugs in, round the village, out on the quiet country roads, sometimes she goes out in the morning and she runs til lunchtime!! Why should she get my hard-earned tax money just to do nothing?


Laura is 26. From the age of 6, both her uncle and his friend used to sexually assault her. She never told anyone, they said they would do it to her brother if she did. As she grew up she became more and more withdrawn. Sometimes they hurt her physically and she had to try to hide the bruises away.

She never made any friends and ran away from home when she was 15. Living on the streets, people took advantage of her and she soon became a prostitute with a crack habit.

At 18, she managed to get a place in a hospice and with the amazing help of mental health workers, counsellors and a safe environment, she got clean. She moved away, moved to a nice safe village, kept working on her past and found solace in running. All the time she runs, music pounding in her ears, she can forget. Shejust after midnight feels free and alive.

She has managed to start volunteering in a local centre working with other young people who've been what she went through and hopes that one day, she might be able to make a career of it.

She has never spoken to any of her neighbours, she's still too damaged, and she certainly wouldn't tell them about her childhood.

Do you remember Doreen? She never stops that woman, out at work all hours, looking after the kids, running em here and there. And all her husband ever does is lie around on the sofa watching daytime TV! 16 years it is since he worked! The man must have no shame. 


Karl served in Kosovo. It was brutal time and he lost many good friends. One night, just after midnight, he and his men were taking cover behind an old burnt out coach. A bomb suddenly exploded and every last man but him got blown to pieces. He was taken away and held for days with little food and light. They questioned him at gunpoint until he soiled himself, then left him sitting in the mess. He saw women raped and children left to die at the side of the road, their eyes pleading with him as he marched past.

Since then, he's suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He has terrible periods of depression, flashbacks, sweats and night terrors. He can't sleep and when he does he wakes up screaming. He barely pays attention to his family, and though the television might be on, he never sees the programme. He only sees one programme now, running trough his mind every minute of every day.

He makes Doreen promise she won't ever tell anyone what he goes through. She wouldn't dream of talking about it with her neighbours.

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24 comments:

  1. It's true many people have hidden disabilities...and have to also cope with ignorance and discrimination from the public. I have a physical disability that is obvious...but have friends' with epilepsy, lupus etc who have overheard some very nasty comments about them.Sue .

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  2. agreed many people are idiotic. Rose tinted glasses and believing what the government tells. them it fulls my full of fear. the rhetoric being used by this government is scarily similar to Germany and the Hitler years

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  3. A neighbour shouted to me the other week - 'it must be nice to be a lady of leisure!' - I had just come back from the longest trip out alone I had had in 5 years (just under an hour) and it the first time I had got on a bus in 5 years. I felt sick and dizzy and had bruises on my arm where I had walked into things. But I guess to the world I looked like a lady of leisure out on a stroll. It was so hard I dont know if or when i'll be able to do it again. I dont know if he meant anything by it but it made that great achievment of mine feel like I had done something wrong.

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  4. Did you edit out all of the previous 50+ comments which revealed you had been making up stories about your fictional friend Karl? Don't worry, I've got a full copy of the original web page which I would be delighted to post again on either this blog or one that you don't control.

    And as you have proved so sensitive, it will probably be worth my while coming back to this fantasy blog.

    You lefties. Can't face the truth.

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  5. JUST A TASTER:

    Sue Marsh said...
    Anonymous - Say what? You find it impossible to believe that there are ex-servicemen suffering from PTSD? Men like Karl who are still suffering today? 

I change the names in my posts, and as it happens, I changed the place in which Karl's tragedy unfolded in an attempt to protect him. 

Do really think that by "proving" it didn't happen in Kosovo that means none of what I wrote is true? Pathetic.
    31 October 2011 14:38

    Sue Marsh said...
    If fact, I challenge you - the incident did happen, but not 16 years ago and not in Kosovo. You are clearly someone who loves to verify facts, so fill your boots! Dig around until you can find where it did happen and to whom.
    31 October 2011 14:42

    Sue Marsh said...
    Tim - I don't care what you think. 

I said it wasn't made up - believe me or don't

The point was not the individual story anyway. If you don't believe there are ex service personnel suffering from PTSD you must be willingly choosing to. 

http://www.combatstress.org.uk/

To try to discredit my article over this is pathetic.
    31 October 2011 15:57


    Sue Marsh said...
    Well, he is a real case, or I'd say wouldn't I? I'd have no reason at all not to. It was earlier than Kosovo and yes, he served in the UK army. 

The bit I don't get is why it matters so much???? there are thousand's of Karls out there, who served in many different conflicts - why does it matter where when and how?

Why does that matter more than the condition, what he goes thorough - and the point of my post - why he'ss ashamed of his suffering?
    31 October 2011 18:01

    Sue Marsh said...
    I feel bad for you. checking all these conflicts. It was Northern Ireland in 1986 or 87. I have no idea if it was officially recorded or not. The reason I didn't name NI, was because I felt it was too sensitive and might be a little inflammatory. 

He did go on to serve in the gulf, which is where some of the rest of the story comes from.
    31 October 2011 18:20

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  6. f...off anonymous leave sue be she is better than you and the right wing crap you put out. cant face the truth you cant.i hope you get very ill soon and see how you cope.and i wish i could be there see you kicked in the teeth by cam and ids and i hope you will then say sorry to sue for being a right wing tit. and im not a leftie im just f...off with peaple like you well done sue keep it up we will win one day i hope

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  7. So, first of all Sue claims that it was one instance, "Karl's tragedy" (1438). She confirms that by referring to "the incident" (1442). She declares it wasn't "made up" (1557). She affirms he is a "real case" (1801). But at 1820, she's less sure, either of the year (1986 or 1987), and then admits that the single incident was split into two separate events, with the second in 1991. Given that the rest of her now taken down web page contains evidence from the CAIN database of all casualties in Northern Ireland that reveals that no such bombing occurred in either 1986 or 1987, and that no British soldiers were captured after such an explosion in the Gulf in 1991, and that even those who were never saw any evidence of rapes or dying children, don't you think it is highly likely that Sue is lying through her teeth, like a typical lefty shite?

    I do feel for Sue's medical problems, and admire her dedication in surmounting those issues to post her views on the web. Genuinely. But lying is lying, and last I heard, having chronic Crohn's disease did not affect the brain, at least not to the extent that lying is OK.

    As for the rest of your comments on my personal health, all I can do is to imitate Clarkson and intone "Loser!".

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  8. so anonymous its ok for cameron to tell lies and the the bbc and the rest . but sue didnt tell lies about him . just changed his name he still has an illness so why be a pain . sue got an illness to i could go on but you are pain in the backside so just get lost and let sue get on with her blogs

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  9. No. Sue did tell a lie about him. It's very difficult to think that Karl actually exists, given Sue's backtracking in the face of evidence.

    Given Sue's "political engagement", I'm not going to get lost at all. Why should she have the right to put out lies into the public domain? Particularly under the label of asking other people not to lie?

    If she stops lying, I'll stop commenting. If she keeps lying, I'll keep posting. Simples.

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  10. Lying means asserting something as true that isn't. You can't point out where she has done that Anonymous. You're instead having to come up with context-free innuendo like the very kind of stories Sue was trying to make a point about.

    Unless she is up at this hour, which I doubt, the more likely explanation for the comments is that Blogspot is having technical issues which it often does.

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  11. @ Mason Dixon,

    1. The whole point of Sue's argument in her post (see the longer version which adds paragraphs) is that she thinks it is wrong for people to make stuff up about benefits claimants to then put them in a bad light.

    2. To make that point, she comes up with 3 examples. By implication, those examples must be true or else she would not advance them in the context of an article arguing for truth and facts in this debate.

    3. One of those three examples is proven beyond reasonable doubt to be false. As she herself admits. She admits to melding together "facts" from separate years, and ignores evidence to suggest that (a) the Northern Ireland incident ever happened (see the CAIN database, internationally recognised over many years and by all senior participants in the Peace Process), (b) that no British soldier was ever captured in Kosovo, (c) that any British soldier was ever present to see women being raped and children dying in the street, in either (d) Kosovo, or (e) the Gulf.

    4. She has placed on the public record a series of grudging posts in which she moves from repeating an assertion that everything is true to admitting that she made it all up, In 5 separate posts.

    How much more evidence do you need that she is lying through her teeth? Is it not also reasonable to doubt her integrity on the other two examples she gives?

    More importantly, if this is the standard of debate among the modern left, are you not ashamed? I don't think Sue would be, as she seems to have departed the reality-based world some time ago.

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  12. Sue has not lied and neither has anyone of her regular posters who have a name that post on her blog

    I know this government inside out and back to front and they are guilty on all charges and you posting Anonymous doesn't help supposed we all did that what then what sort of blog would this be
    Not that good and most certainly not credible

    Sue has and would never lie and if it wasn't for her illness would be a most wonderful mp as she like me likes to get to the heart of the matter and get the facts right first and foremost

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  13. You are rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic at least Sue as sick as she is, is trying to launch a lifeboat to save the sick and disabled.

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  14. @ fourbanks

    Nice try. By her own admission Sue has lied. She invented a narrative that said there was a single person who was the sole survivor of a bomb blast, and who was then kept prisoner and saw appalling scenes of rape and children dying.

    She later says that is not what happened. External evidence indicates that NONE of the events actually happened (neither the bomb blast in 1986 /87, not the capture in 1991, nor the witnessing of rape and children dying).

    Sue chose to write the words that she did in her original post. Deliberate choice.

    Are you lot all fucking mental? Pretending something has happened doesn't make it true. I thought your disabilities only affected your bodies, not your brains as well.

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  15. Every one of these types of reference that sue has implied to this thread is true and i know far worse so I'm unsure of the point you are trying to make Anonymous

    the UK government treats the armed services of the UK very badly and always has done my dad told me that 50 years ago and nothing has changed the government treats the sick and disabled of the UK very badly and i can personally vouch for that so Anonymous DON'T SPLIT HAIRS
    and don't act the fool it might wash with some but as i have always been very close to government I'll decide on who is right and it isn't you

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  16. @ fourbanks:

    "types of reference"? That's not really the same as saying these cases are real, though, is it?

    I've just posted a comment on the other thread. I served for 22 years in the Army leaving in 1995, so I think I have some experience of how the Army treats people, good and bad. I went to Oz for 3 years, but it didn't work out and I came home. Since 1998, I have been part of a support network for other ex-Army people in my region. Sue has been caught out making stuff up. Why don't you just deal with that? Her wider point is still good, it's just stupid to invent stuff to try to make it more interesting.

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  17. @ Anonymous Troll.

    Sue has given examples to illustrate a point, they are generic and better for it, as to 'trace' people who might be suffering in these ways could lead to yet more abuse, inhumanity and mental ill health, (yes, some of us are 'mental'). Having read your posts I would recommend you yourself ask your Doctor for an assessment.
    Sue is not a journalist, she campaigns in her own time against the suffering and contempt for the non-rich meted out daily by this government.

    Your invocation of Clarkson (I assume Jeremy and not Kelly) pretty much sums up who you are and your behaviour; highly susceptible to social conditioning via tabloid press. I refer you to Stewart Lee on this matter.

    Now, I won't take up any more of your time as you will need to get back to your thermal imaging cameras (constructed from Tesco Finest toilet rolls no doubt) and make up some more of your own lies about the most vulnerable people you can find and then about those who care about others enough to take action. [By the way - it has been proven time and time again that the Daily Mail makes up its 'news' stories.]

    Meanwhile people like Sue will work hard to counteract the hysterical corporate funded culture which creates social permission for evil.

    Goodbye.

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  18. You don't get rid of me that easily.

    Sue puts up an article saying how "nasty" it is for people to make stuff up about benefits claimants, and then deliberately makes up at least one example to "prove" a point.

    None of you can see how that isn't a bit strange? Or is that OK because they are "generic and better for it"?

    I think I'll stick around, to pop any more balloons Sue puts up. If she posts good stuff, I won't intervene. But if she lies, she's fair game.

    Disability doesn't mean you have to make stuff up.

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  19. Anonymous - Sue didn't post true stories with real names or real places because they're not her stories to tell. In case you couldn't tell from the stories themselves, these people already suffer from discrimination and don't need any more coming at them from this post. It's sad that they feel they can't be completely open and honest with everybody but with the kind of hate abundant in the media right now (which you're perpetuating here...) I can completely understand it.

    To be honest, Anonymous, I'm surprised YOU don't understand it, being anonymous yourself. Does that mean you're lying because you didn't give your real name?

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  20. well,

    she shouldn't pretend they are real.

    And she shouldn't post them on an article that moans about the media and others making up stories.

    Because if she does, she's a hypocrite.

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  21. No Anon Troll, it isn't strange that she used examples which either protected the identity of others or show what life is like for some without referring to one specifically identified person. Try to put yourself in the position of people like Sue's examples - having been through enough without every internet hater coming after them - and needing our compassion and support rather than spurious accusations.
    It is however strange that you are so obsessed with this, it's as though you are on some sort of crusade - but for what? You seem to imagine yourself as a sort of 'guardian' who needs to 'keep an eye', on what exactly? Nothing useful or relevant, the disabled people who are trying to fight for their rights and dignity perhaps? Just in case we suddenly gain access to weapons of mass destruction?

    I wasn't expecting to get rid of you - if only life were that easy. I was just saying goodbye.
    I will now do so again.

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  22. I'm not sure if the missing posts issue is affecting all of Blogspot or just DoaBS, but seeing as the critical posts are all following the same unjustified theme where they claim Sue has stated the media and others have 'made up stories', I think this is being directed from elsewhere. If only DoaBS is affected then it could be that many posts are being spammed and the spam filter can't cope and keeps moving posts between certain times on and off the database.

    Still waiting for these people to actually point out where Sue has said what they keep claiming. Saying that the media omit the inconvenient details from anecdotes is not the same as saying they have made them up. This really isn't hard to grasp.

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  23. Really Anonymous Troll, I think you show your true colours with your: "Are you all fucking mental?" comment. Some of the people who post here will have mental health problems but unlike you they are not small-minded bigots with too much time on their hands and deserve more respect than you are willing to afford them, in fact we all do. So why not find another blog to pursue your rather sad hobby because you are not only irritating, you have also become extremely boring.

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  24. A different anonymous3 November 2011 at 15:57

    There are no missing posts. It would appear that a not quite finished version of a the blog post (this one) appeared, followed by a mostly the same but slightly longer one. Most of the comments appear on the second (finished) version. Going to the homepage will currently show both posts (this one just below the other).

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