Bastards, Fathers, and a Cup of Coffee
A deranged individual went out and stabbed fellow citizens because he had been fed a narrative that he was protecting children from ‘bastard Muslims.’ That was yesterday. And yet, in the middle of all that horror, I still found a sliver of deep joy, just sitting still in the sun, grateful for another day.
But let’s go back to that word ‘bastard’ The real bastards, in my view, are the paedophile child abusers in Rotherham and the rapists on Epstein’s island. The difference between them and the stabbed victims? Both groups of abusers saw their victims as beneath them, undeserving of dignity, safety, or basic humanity. Epstein’s circle also believed wealth and power placed them above the law, and it seems they may have been right. In both cases, children were treated as objects to be used. Fathers need to be vigilant, not just for their own, but for all children.
Then there’s a third class of bastards, the government officials and authorities who knew what was going on and stayed quiet because they didn’t want to be called racist. What justification is that? Would they have stayed silent if it had been their own children?
This goes deeper than I can discuss here. To all those bastards, abusers, enablers, and silence keepers, I hope you get what you deserve.
And yet, amid this anger and grief, I also want to hold onto something else. Today was Father’s Day, and I thought of all the fathers raising children in places where hatred is thrown at them because of their skin colour or faith. Imagine that.
But still, we are grateful. The weather was fine, the sun was out, and for a few hours, I remembered what it felt like to just be.
If I could, I’d invite everyone, the angry, the grieving, the confused, to Ottoman Coffeehouse for an hour, just to remember what it feels like to be human among humans. But for now, I’ll hold onto that image, and I’ll hold onto my children, and I’ll take it one day at a time. If I delete this post later, know that it came from a place of love, fear, and hope, all at once.
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