Further Influences of Jello Biafra on He Was Weird

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books, bullying, christianity, Columbine, computer games, films, He Was Weird, Jello Biafra, Politics, religion, school shootings, schools, teasing

It would be a complete lie if I didn’t admit that a large part of my writing “He Was Weird” was influenced by the speech by Jello Biafra I heard in 2005. After all, it was that speech that made me realize that in the case of school shootings, this could have been me. Also like Jello, one of the reasons why it was never me was that I had no access to guns or any money to go out and buy them. What I can say was that speech made me think and reflect back to less happier times in my past and that got me to write the book.

For the record, I never intentionally plagiarized anything Mr Biafra said in that speech. If anything, I took what was said and went the opposite way with it. The best example was with Jello’s constant identification of religion. In some of the school shootings he refers to, Columbine included, he points out the “being bullied to believe” attitude that permeates many small towns in America. He attacks the attitude that if children had more religion in their lives, they wouldn’t do such horrible things. Yes, I find it difficult not to laugh at that notion too. So what I did in the book was to make Mark a Born Again Christian. Fairly early in the story, he accepts Jesus as his Saviour but that does nothing to quell the bullying hell he is suffering. While his conversion leads to the best week of his young life, it is also short lived. What religion does do for Mark in preparation for his big day is to give him courage to carry out his rampage via two verses in the Bible. I guess hanging the ten commandments up in the classroom wouldn’t have prevented the shooting in this case.

Jello Biafra

Another big part of that speech playfully attacks those who are convinced that Marilyn Manson and violent computer games like Doom causes school shootings. I never followed the argument that games like Doom desensitize a person from violence. Most kids and adults play these games as a release and nothing more. Killing aliens and monsters and even enemy soldiers on a screen is a good way to unwind after a tough day. However, in “He Was Weird,” Mark doesn’t own any CDs or computer games that would contribute to him carrying out his shooting. No Marilyn Manson or Doom, the only music the police find in Mark’s room after the shooting are by two Christian Rock bands and the only computer games are an ice hockey game and the Age of Empires series. Of course, the latter is blamed on Mark’s rampage by some people. They argue that those games gave Mark the military know how to carry out his plan that day. As a result, some victims try to sue Microsoft and others try to get the teacher who ran the computer games club fired. Well, they had to blame something I guess.

Marilyn Manson-

There are probably other things in Jello Biafra’s speech which also influenced my writing of “He Was Weird.” These are only minor points and if I remember them, I’ll post about those in the future. The biggest things were religion and the belief that music and computer games cause school shootings.

To buy He Was Weird, go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495650963&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does Music Cause School Shootings?

Tags

Arkansas, books, Bowling for Columbine, Columbine, guns, Jonesboro, Marilyn Manson, Michael Moore, music, religion, school shootings

Marilyn Manson

When Columbine happened, there seemed to be a lot of people chimed in that Marilyn Manson was to blame. That the two shooters who carried out the massacre were driven to their crimes by the music of Marilyn Manson. Students at the school and many parents from the area were all certain that the two boys were hard core fans of the infamous singer. This was later debunked as investigations emerged that they were neither Manson fans nor of the trench coat wearing brigade. However, the accusations aimed at Manson nearly ruined his music career.

In the documentary film, “Bowling for Columbine,” during his interview with Michael Moore, Manson points out that on the same day, the US Air Force dropped more bombs on Kosovo than at any other time during that campaign. The bombings were sanctioned by then president Bill Clinton. Manson pointed out that the president has more ability to influence people that Manson does.

Columbine wasn’t the only school shooting where music was blamed. When the shooting occurred in Jonesboro, Arkansas, music was blamed as well. One US Senator stated that music was at fault and even got one of the teachers to say of the elder shooter, “He was a fine boy until he started listening to Tu-Pac Shaker and Bugs Harmony.” What the senator omitted was that the boy sang in the church choir and at ages 13 and 11, they know how to steal and drive a van and knew right where to get the guns for the big day. The 13 year old stated that the reason he shot only girls and a female teacher was because one girl ‘jilted’ him by refusing to become his girlfriend on demand. Sorry, that doesn’t sound like any musical influence to me.

A study by Alfred University lists the reasons why school shootings occur. There are sixteen of them and I don’t see music listed at all. The closest is viewing of violence in movies, games and videos. FFI, you can check it out yourself:  http://www.alfred.edu/teenviolence/whydoshootings.cfm

Music being responsible for school shootings also occurs in fiction as well as fact. Two of the books I have talked about on this blog have music blamed in some way for the school shooting that occurs in the story. I also have a little fun with it in “He Was Weird.” Therefore, my next three posts will talk about the shootings in those stories and the role music is believed to have played in them. I’ll start with Jodi Picoult’s “Nineteen Minutes” in my next post. Maybe then, I’ll have some understanding why people are quick to blame music for school shootings.

To buy He Was Weird, go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485376494&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

My Confusion of Religion and Music

Tags

Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, books, christianity, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, confusion, contradiction, He Was Weird, Marine Corps, Mormons, music, religion

Many Born Again Christians who knew me in my teens and young adult years blamed the Marine Corps for my straying from the faith. Many but not all because some blamed music. The funny thing was the fact that there was a great deal of truth in that but not as some might imagine. See, I wasn’t turned from my faith because I began listening to Motley Crue albums, no, music played a role in my disassociation with Born Again Christianity in a different way, which I will now explain.

When I was fifteen, I worked the first of three summers at a Bible Camp based on the one mentioned in “He Was Weird.” My musical knowledge at the time was limited to AM radio and it was meeting people at the camp who had much more extensive musical knowledge who enlightened my musical experiences beyond that of mainstream radio. During the summer of 1976, I was introduced to musical artists such as Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Jim Croce and even KISS. Although I knew of the Beatles, thanks to one friend, by the time the summer finished, I could practically sing the Sgt Pepper album by heart. What all of these musically wise co-workers all had in common was the fact that they were all very strong Christians. When the summer was over, I further investigated my new knowledge and began exploring musicians on my own initiative. That’s how a became a big Jefferson Starship fan. Furthermore, my musical knowledge would grow deeper when I would return to work at the camp over the next two summers.

Sure, there were those of the older generation and some younger ones who declared rock music to be of the devil. It was after the third summer when I heard someone from my local church youth group state that KISS was an anagram for Knights in Satan’s Service and I stopped listening to them. But for the most part, I listened to what I wanted without any finger pointing. In addition, when the church went roller skating, no one stopped the rink deejay from playing main stream music. So, I saw nothing wrong with listening to music.

My musical knowledge and appreciation expanded thousands fold when I joined the marines. It opened up my experiences to all sorts of music including my love for Southern Rock. Therefore, when I left the service, I had all sorts of musical knowledge and experiences to build upon and was as knowledgeable as many of my contemporaries. As for being a Born Again Christian, I still had the faith but by that time, I was using Ephesians Chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 to justify not bothering with the works. That didn’t stop one of my old friends trying to bring me ‘back to the fold.’

I went to church with my friend and even to some of his young adult evenings. I found them fun but there was no spiritual uplifting for me. Then at one such function, those Christians began talking about the evils of rock music and how it was of the devil. My friend even confessed that he was having a difficult time in destroying his record collection to which one person advised him to simply put them in the bath and turn the water on to warp them.

This is what I found confusing. I had come to love rock music through friends who were just as good Christians, maybe better, than the ones who were now denouncing music. This contradiction caused great confusion in my mind because I saw nothing spiritually wrong with most music. If anything contributed to my divorce from this form of Christianity, it was this confusion over music.

Yes, KISS was still a religious football kicked around by these Christians as an example of the evils of rock and roll but further artists were being thrown in. Michael Jackson was attacked because he was a Jehovah’s Witness and buying his records was supporting that ‘false’ faith. Then more anagrams came in. The band WASP was awarded two: We Are Satan’s People and We Are Sexual Perverts. Furthermore, female artists Stevie Nicks and Grace Slick both supposedly practiced witchcraft and a couple of years later, so did Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart. To me, it was just getting ridiculous. Then the final straw came after Live Aid when these so called Christians condemned the artists who performed saying they should have given 10% of their money instead of twenty minutes of their time. I wonder how many of these ‘Christians’ gave that much of their money. If it wasn’t that, my final straw with Born Again Christianity would have come a year later when these persons would show up at concerts and tell us we were all going to hell for seeing a concert.

WASP

My attitudes towards  music remained with me when I began investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (Mormons.) During one of the discussions, I was ready to come out and ask the missionaries teaching us if I joined their church, would I be expected to burn my AC/DC albums. Fortunately, my then wife was a bit more diplomatic and managed to steer the conversation to that vein so my question was answered.  Mormonism is more of a play on the conscience. When listening to any music, one is supposed to ask themselves, “Would they feel comfortable listening to it if Jesus were listening with them?” If the answer is no, then don’t listen to it. When I was young in the faith, there were a few albums I could answer yes to. Most had swearing in the lyrics and there was one song where the singer came right out and sang “Hail Satan.” But most of what I listened to I felt okay with. So, if anyone asks, music had nothing to do with my choice to leave the faith.

Contrary to what some Born Again Christians might think, I haven’t chosen music over God. In fact, I can listen to Christian rock just as I do non-Christian rock. I do really like Stryper. Just don’t tell me that I’m worshiping Satan because I listen to music because I’ll tell you where to go.

To buy He Was Weird, go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484762670&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

Religion is the Biggest Contradiction of All to Me

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Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, Bible, Book of Mormon, christianity, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, contradiction, He Was Weird, islam, Jesus Christ, Marine Corps, Mormons, religion

Sometimes when I write a post, it opens my mind up for further contemplation on the subject I’ve posted about and paves the way for future posts. This is a good thing as I don’t have to dither on what I’m going to write about each week. Last week’s post on how contradiction has negative effects on me has been successful in influencing this week’s post.

Probably the biggest contradictions I’ve had to deal with in my life is those imposed on me by religion. For those who haven’t been following Peaceful Rampage from the early years, allow me to recap history. In my teens, I was a stalwart Born Again Christian. Like so many people who possess traits of Asperger’s Syndrome, I believed what was taught ultra literally. Not just what I read in the Bible but what was said by ministers, Sunday School teachers and others who I perceived to have standing in the church and to be good Christians. However, there were times that these people seemed to contradict each other and at times, the scriptures and that effected my faith.

The two biggest contradictory occurrences both happened when I was 17. During that summer, I worked away at a Christian summer camp and had a relationship with a female colleague there. When I came home at the end of the summer, I was determined to carry on the relationship despite the fact the girl lived 85 miles away. Naturally, to do this was complicated but I tried to have faith. Some, including members of my family thought that I was wasting time chasing after a girl so far away. However, what kept me on course was messages from two ministers who basically said that one night stands, short term and meaningless romances were a sin because that wasn’t love, it was lust. Therefore, I concluded that if I treated what I had with that girl as a summertime romance, I would be sinning against God. This contradiction messed with my head for the two years, I considered myself to be with this girl. It only ended when she rejected my proposal of marriage and that played a major part in my departure from wanting to do what God wanted.

The second instance started when I was 17 but lasted a good seven years and revolved around my time in the Marines. Some people in the church and my mother weren’t too happy my decision to enlist. They thought that me being such a good Christian, that I would become corrupted by the evil heathens that made up the US military. At the same time, however, many of them would pontificate Romans 13 and obeying the government. Ministers and teachers both stated that if we were called to go to war, we have the obligation to go. Furthermore, some, especially some of the younger Christians used to tell how the Vietnam draft dodgers were all in danger of hell fire for disobeying the Lord. This was a contradiction that in my mind, bordered on hypocrisy. Saying that you should obey your government in one hand but the other, discouraging young people from actually serving their country. That for me was the final straw with the Born Again faith. While I admit that I did become corrupted in the military, it wasn’t because of the evil heathens but because I got to the end of my tether with these contradictions. Saying that, I never renounced my faith in Jesus. I still professed to have faith but and justified it with Ephesians Chapter 2 verses 8 and 9. My statement was that if you’re saved through grace and not of works, why bother with the works?

In my very late twenties and thirties, I did find a faith that was right for me. That was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or better known as Mormons. I didn’t find contradiction with the teachings save one, which I will go into in a moment. I will not go into any argument as to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I look at it this way, we can accept the Bible and Muslims, the Qu’uran, so why should the Book of Mormon be any different? Besides, if Joseph Smith did make it all up, he must have one hell of an imagination.  Another point about it is that I have read this book and found absolutely nothing blasphemous. However, I have found a contradiction. Mormons believe that murder is an unpardonable sin. Also, if somebody had something valuable of mine and refused to give it back, even after I had given him money for it, and so one night, I waited for him to be passed out drunk, killed him and got my possession back, I still would be guilty of murder. In the opening chapters of the Book of Mormon, this happens when Nephi kills a man named Laban because he refuses to give back the brass plates belonging to Nephi’s father. It is written that the spirit of God commands Nephi to do this but why would God have somebody commit and act which is really an unpardonable sin? This contradiction gets to me and saying that it’s not important isn’t the answer because it’s important to me. For the record, this wasn’t the reason why I eventually left the LDS faith.

Now for the shameless connection to “He Was Weird.” In the story, Mark does become a Born Again Christian but God never delivers him from his bullies. When he sites the ‘turn the other cheek’ passage for not standing up to his bullies, he is rebuked and told that it doesn’t mean he needs to be a punching bag. The contradictions with his faith are one of the things that lead him to use Deuteronomy Chapter 20, verses 16-17 to carry out his big climax.

At the moment, contradictions in religion have resulted in me becoming a spiritual anarchist. I believe in the teaching of Christianity including Mormonism but to follow any faith would be detrimental to my mental well being because of the fact that I would believe things so literally and contradiction would cause nothing more than stress and anxiety. Therefore, I have chosen to remain happy.

To buy He Was Weird, go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484157798&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

I Don’t Do Contradiction

Tags

anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, books, communication, contradiction, D.A.M.P., He Was Weird, Mothers, religion

 

The confused guy from The Last Show

Nobody likes contradiction. It causes confusion, raises anxiety levels and can make the person causing the contradiction appear stupid even if being contradictory wasn’t the intention. For most of us, contradiction is a severe stress on the mind but that multiplies many more fold with someone with Asperger’s Syndrome.

There are two distinct reasons why contradiction is dangerous for anyone on the Autistic Spectrum. One is the fact that most people with ASD take what is said to them literally. In many cases, it is seen as carved in stone gospel fact. Therefore, anything in contradiction can cause confusion with a person with ASD. If it doesn’t cause confusion, any new contradictory message to what that person believes can be outright rejected because said person has been told what they have been told already so this new contradiction can’t be true. No matter how much evidence is presented that it might be. The person with ASD has already been told one fact and has made their mind up, end of.

The other reason is that with many people with ASD, all information gets through and those who know can back me on how much overload that can cause in the brain of the ASD person. Any contradiction to what a person has believed for a length of time can very easily overload the brain, especially if that particular receiver of information has difficulty in processing information. Yet another reason why contradiction is a danger to people who have ASD.

While there are small instances of contradiction playing havoc with Mark’s mind in “He Was Weird,” none of the events are that consequential to the story. Although they are a contributing factor to Mark snapping. However, there are plenty of instances in my own life where it has been consequential. One such and I’m not blaming my mother here, is that I was taught never to pester people. For most of my childhood, this was a great tool for me. However, when I was seventeen and looking for part time work a contradiction set in. On several job applications, I was told by the prospective employer that they would be in touch. They never did and I never pursued it because in my mind, that would be pestering people. It was then that I was told that I should bug those employers and let them know that I was there. This was a major contradiction in my brain because it went against everything I had been taught over the years and it took me a long time to process it into my brain.

Another one was when I was in the marines. During the four years I was wearing a crew cut in the service of my country, it seemed everyone commented on my short hair. People who saw pictures of me with longer hair before I went in said I looked better with it. Then I get out and do grow my hair. Yes, I went from one extreme to the other but all of a sudden, everyone began saying that I looked better with shorter hair. The effect that had on my brain was near catastrophic. It totally sent my mind into a massive overload and it highlights another effect contradiction has on me and I’m sure I’m not the only one. At times, I can perceive people who deliver contradictory information as hypocrites.

Today, in my more advanced years, I am able to deal with contradiction much better. This comes from years of mental conditioning and like many things with my life, painful trial and error. Still, I don’t always handle contradiction very well and will never master it.

To buy He Was Weird, go to https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483565248&sr=8-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

 

 

No Need to Justify But…

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Americans, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, books, communication, D.A.M.P., Donald Trump, Facebook, Great Britain, insults, intolerance, Nazis, Politics, religion, teasing

Justifying myself has been something I did constantly throughout my early life. The reasons were mainly down to people not understanding where I was coming from or taking something I said totally the opposite direction from what I intended. This is a common occurrence with those who have Autistic Spectrum Disorder and another reason as to why I think I’m on said spectrum. Then again, bullying came into play here as well. Either as an excuse to unleash or threaten violence on me, these people would intentionally misinterpret something I said or in the case of a third party, misrepresent or just simply lie to my tormentor(s). Often times, this feigned ignorance would be used as a source of amusement against me because I would find myself desperately trying to explain myself only for it to fall on deaf ears. I know now that many times, those ears were intentionally deaf.

Such an occurrence happened as a result of my post last week. Some who read that post on Facebook may have gotten the wrong idea about me saying that leaving America isn’t the answer to Donald Trump. In one case, I was asked if I were in Nazi Germany, would I have said to the Jews they should stay. My answer would have been no. Hopefully Donald Trump will not be anything like Hitler but if he is, then those who are the most vulnerable to his persecutions should flee the country. But if he’s not, then the best way to fight back against him is to stay and show your opposition to him, within the confines of the law of course. Yes, he may try to change the law to effect my last sentence but that opens up an entirely different debate which I won’t go into now.

Another stems from the what has become commonly known as ‘liberal intolerance.’ The premise that liberals and those on the left believe that they alone are right that they refuse to hear any alternative opinions from those considered on the right or conservative. What’s worse, is that the left begin calling these adversaries rednecks or stupid. Many of them are neither, they just have a view that you don’t agree with. However, I have seen and heard the same type of intolerance from the right. Once, when I expressed concerns about mandatory drug testing, I was called a ‘shit for brains drugger.’ When I pointed out that Sweden hadn’t fought a war in over 200 years, I was told to go live there. Furthermore, while the left called anyone voting for Trump a redneck, one person tried to dissuade me from voting for Jill Stein because the Green Party was socialist. Hey, they branded Obama that in two elections and it worked neither time.

One more point from last week: As predicted, the Democrats are blaming Jill Stein for Hilary Clinton’s defeat and are calling Stein a spoiler. Well, the maths tell another story. After the election a poll was taken of Jill Stein voters asking how they would have voted if she wasn’t on the ballot. Here are the results:

Only 25% said they would have voted for Clinton

14% said they would have voted for Trump

Most importantly, 61% said they would not have voted at all!

Proof that Jill Stein did not lose the election for Hilary

NOT!!

Since I feel like I’m on a roll, I’m going to justify myself with everything to get it all out in the open. In the past, with my Aspergers’ and DAMP tendencies, I have been afraid of doing so for many reasons. So now, I’m not holding back and while you might not agree with me on some or many points, I hope you will respect my opinions for they come as a result of experience and not because I read some book or attended a lecture.

I sit just left of centre on the political fence. This is in British terms of where the fence lies. In American terms, I would be seen as a Trotskyite, Marxist, radical, I’m not I assure you. Yes, I did delve into Marx in the mid 80s but I have long since concluded that it is a nice theory that will never work in reality.

Nice guy probably but his theory is unworkable.

Anyone can be a perpetrator or victim of racism. While it is true that most of it is carried out by whites against non-whites, it certainly doesn’t mean that racist acts carried out by non-white groups should be justified or ignored. Point: I’ve heard racial minorities say the same things against other minority groups that whites say. I’ve heard Africans call Asians ‘Pakis’ and Hispanics ‘Spicks’ and I’ve heard both of those call Blacks ‘Niggers.’ Pointing this out does not make me a racist. I think the only race we should all regard is the human race.

 I have no problem with anyone who follows a belief, philosophy or religion. All I ask is that you don’t try to convert me around to your way of thinking because I believe that that’s the root of the problem starts. Everyone should quietly live according to their own beliefs and not try to push theirs on anyone.

Having lived in two countries, there are things good about both of them. An example from each: The National Health Service does work in the UK. In the US, I see the benefit of lower or no tax on items such as clothes, food and petrol. Both countries do some things better than the other and vice versa.

I don’t think the US 2nd Amendment, The Right to Bear Arms will ever be repealed. I sympathize with the argument that it has become outdated but it’s been ingrained in the minds of too many Americans. In a post I wrote some months ago, I pointed out that there are plenty of gun laws in America to control it. However, these laws aren’t being adequately enforced. That’s just wrong, so let’s start by doing that.

Now to the First Amendment, which I have used pretty much throughout this post. You have the right to tell me you disagree with me, I only ask that you do it without hurling insults or calling names. Furthermore, I think that right wing extremists and Muslim hate preachers should be allowed a platform to speak their views. This way, most reasonable people can see them for what they are. The BBC did this successfully when they allowed Nick Griffin, leader of the far right British National Party (BNP) on Question Time. There’s hardly been a peep out of him since he was on that show.

This is me for all to see. I don’t need to justify myself and in the future, if you should read something you don’t agree with or are not clear on, just ask.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479840352&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

Intolerance Has Made Me More Tolerant

Tags

bullying, christianity, clothing, exclusion, France, Great Britain, intolerance, islam, Mormons, race relations, religion, sexism, social settings, stereotypes

In my last post, I talked about the intolerance I received as a youth and young adult over my clothing. Briefly, I caught a lot of grief from people because I still wanted to wear a baseball jacket when I was eleven and for growing my hair long when I got out of the marines. While it wasn’t as severe as the grief I got for my hair, I also caught a lot of intolerance over my chosen footwear, my Native American moccasin boots. The experience left me feeling rather bitter in many ways and kick started my angry young man phase, whose peak was reached the first year I came to Great Britain.

I loved these boots and wore them most of the time

One good thing, if you want to call it that, arose from all that intolerance. It made me learn to be more tolerant towards others, especially in the realm of clothing. For many years, this tolerance wasn’t tested much but recently, with all the talk about women’s dress and Islam over the past few years, that tolerance has been tested a lot more and it hasn’t always been easy.

First, let me join in the burka debate. Like so many well meant Westerners, I thought that this item of clothing was a means of suppression. I will agree that in some sects of Islam, it is. My eyes were opened quite a few years back when I was supply teaching at a school not far away. The school secretary was a Muslim woman in full burka. I have to admit, my personal stereotypes here had me around the edges until the woman initiated a conversation with me. After about 0.3 seconds of conversion with her, I realised that there was an actual person under the clothing and any prejudices I had rapidly vanished. So, I don’t think the burka should be banned, after all, it’s only an item of clothing and if a woman really wants to wear it, men have no right to object.

To head off some of those who are now flexing their typing fingers in response, I am the first person to acknowledge that their are Muslim men who want all women to cover up and if they had the power, would ban the mini skirt. I too was a little incensed when I read about gangs of Muslim men patrolling the streets of East London, calling themselves a Sharia patrol and ordering women to cover up. Furthermore, I have never agreed that a woman is asking for sex just because she chooses to wear such and item of clothing. She too has a right to wear what she wants and that even includes a woman who wears a mini skirt whom some men think she doesn’t have ‘the legs to wear one.’ That shouldn’t matter.

Maybe the Mormons are on to something here. Many of them claim that a woman can be beautiful without having to either hide it or flaunt it. A point to ponder here.

I have no problem with a woman wearing this

Or this

I think that the French shot themselves in the foot recently when officials at a beach banned a woman because she was wearing a burkini. When she was kicked off the beach, along with her children, I seriously doubt that she went home and changed into a bikini or even a one piece swimming costume and returned. No, she will probably never go to the beach again and that’s not fair for her. So France, I think you need to have a rethink on that one. While I don’t ever recall seeing a burkini, I would have no problem if I did see one.

Maybe because I was brought up seeing them that I’m used to it but while a woman should have the right to wear the burkini, she also has the right to wear a bikini. Yes, the more religious will claim that she is showing herself like a piece of meat but I don’t see it that way. I just see a woman wearing the necessary clothing to have a swim.

Both are fine on this beach, they’re fine with me

Now, I know that I have been mainly talking about women with religious views to clothing here but that has been the area wear my tolerance has been tested. For too many years, men of all persuations have been trying too hard to dictate to women what they should wear. I think that people have the right to wear what they like and that even includes men who like to wear dresses. It doesn’t effect my life so who the hell am I to judge. The same goes for body piercings, hair cuts or anything else that person fancies. I will endeavour to be tolerant of it because I have felt what it is like to suffer intolerance because of it.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473873538&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Extreme to the Other

Tags

anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, bullying, christianity, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Marine Corps, Mormons, religion, social settings

This has been the story of my life for most of it, especially during my early years. In fact, an former girlfriend once told me that I had led a very contradictory life. I have to agree with that. After all, in the space of a few years, I had gone from someone who had grown up in a staunch Republican household and served in the Marine Corps to a fully confessed Marxist. To quote the college chaplain at Queen Mary College in London, the American dream wasn’t working out for me so I began looking East. However, my affair with Karl only lasted about a year.

I went from this

To this.

If you read my experiences with religion, you might remember that I had similar experiences with it. In my teenage years, I was a hard core Born Again Christian, eager to go out and live for the Lord. By the time I was eighteen, I was beginning to get disillusioned with it all because it wasn’t solving all my problems. As a result, I began going totally the other way. Inside, I felt that if I couldn’t be the best of the best, I would become the worst of the worst. In my thirties, I had another dance with religion when I joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (Mormons if you haven’t guessed.) In many ways, that was and still is the right faith for me. However, no matter how much I tried following the rules of the church, it didn’t seem to be enough in the end and then when my first marriage ended, that was the catalyst for me moving from any religion. For a while, I did go the other way again. I think I was having a mid life crisis and tried to recapture my early and mid twenties. I even broke out the old heavy metal attire and followed a local band around the pubs of Bristol. That didn’t last long. It ended when I was sitting in a coffee house in Amsterdam, all fuzzy from some of the goodies available there and realising that I wasn’t twenty-five anymore.

These are the two big examples of the extremism of my life. There were many small instances as well. One reason why I let bullies get away with so much was because when I did stand up for myself, I would totally skits out. Often times, the trigger would be something really small but all of the other larger events fueled the explosion. People would only see me lashing out and conveniently forget anything that was done to me. Of course, with my Aspergers mind, the condemnation from ignorant onlookers had me thinking that I was in the wrong and it became a case of damned if I do damned if I don’t. One can imagine what that did to my mental health.

Most things in my life swayed back and forth between the two extremes. That middle ground didn’t exist for me or I couldn’t see the grey area. At first, I took the lesser of two evils approach and that worked for a while. However, it did cause problems when I couldn’t determine which was the lesser evil. Now a days, after years of painful trial and error, I find the grey area much easier to spot and head there straight away and work out a compromise in my mind. That works best for me.

To buy He Was Weird go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1466625482&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even More Weird Actions That Seem Logical to Me

Tags

anxiety, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, books, clothing, exclusion, music, obsessions, religion

Most people like music. It may be different styles, genres or tastes but the bottom line is that nearly everybody likes music. Even those religious nuts who want to ban rock and roll like music, provided Jesus is in the lyrics of the songs. Most music lovers, when they buy a record, CD, etc will immediately play the music they’ve just acquired. If they really like that piece of music, they will play it several more times, even to the point of ‘playing it to death.’ I’m the same, when I buy an album, the first thing I’ll do is pop it into the car stereo and listen to it. I will also make a judgement how much I like it. However, no matter how much I like that new album, I won’t constantly play it again right after the first listen. Instead, it will go in between the CD I listened to before I bought the new one and the one I intend to listen to next.

See, I listen to my CDs in strict rotation according to how they are displayed on the shelf. That new CD won’t be listened to until it comes around again on that rotation. I have been doing this ever since I started buying cassette tapes back in 1980. The funny thing there is that my cassettes were arranged in alphabetical order so I had to completely rely on memory for my tape rotation. You’d might have thing this task would become more daunting as my collection grew. The funny thing was that it didn’t. When I bought a new cassette, it would go into the rotation as normal and I would remember it when its turn came up again. On the odd occasion, I might have forgotten the odd tape in the rotation but once I remembered I had forgotten it, I would play it next and make sure I wouldn’t forget it next time it came up to be played.

I have become the same way with my clothing. My t-shirts and jeans are piled up on shelves and drawers and I wear them in rotation. If the situation warrants, I might alter things a little but the item of clothing that got passed over, would be worn next.

To many, these actions may be considered weird. On the other hand, I bet anyone with Asperger’s Syndrome who is reading this would think that my system is quite logical. It’s logical to me at least. My argument for both is this: If I play music in rotation, I don’t get tired of listening to an album because I played it to death. Obviously, there are some albums that I am more eager to listen to than others and that makes the listening that much better when it comes up in its rotation. As for the clothes, that’s another story. See, because I am not constantly wearing the same items of clothing, they last longer. Letting them have a “rest” goes a long way in preventing wear and tear, so I think there’s advantages to wearing clothes in rotation.

Before some write this off simply as a trait of Asperger’s Syndrome, let me offer further food for thought as to why I am this way with music and clothes. Call it Asperger’s Syndrome or not but I have a fanatical sense of ‘fair play.’ I like to see no one or nothing, being left out. Therefore, everything gets an equal play with me, be music, clothes and if I can arrange it, people. I think this goes back to those three years of bullying hell where I was not only bullied in the traditional sense, but often excluded as well and as I said before, that can be more painful than punches.

In “He Was Weird,” Mark has no obsessions like these but he faces exclusion nonetheless. Those reflections are why I am so committed to fair play for people and possessions.

To buy He Was Weird, go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458763930&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

 

 

 

Do We Have The Right to Hate?

Tags

Asperger's Syndrome, books, bullying, D.A.M.P., hate, He Was Weird, religion, stereotypes

Really, I should just be able to put a big ‘NO’ to this and move on because actually, I think most people would agree that no one has the right to hate anyone else. But if I ended it there, where would be the fun in that? The sad truth is that there are many people out there who genuinely do feel they have the right to hate others. While I won’t go into any specific examples there are plenty of them. This hatred arises from some wrong done to a person or it may have been done to their family, friends, love ones etc or even to their ancestors. Whatever the reason behind it, the question remains, does anyone have the right to hate?

I thought I did when I was thirteen. After I moved out of the town that inflicted so much pain and bullying on me to the point that I wrote “He Was Weird,” I came to a conclusion about many of my bullies. I noticed that the majority of my bullies in that town I lived in, along with the bullies, although a lot less severe, in the two towns I had lived in prior, all had one thing in common: They were Catholic and therefore I had the right to hate all Catholics. Adding more fuel to the fire was earlier that year, I had gone through my confirmation classes at my church and the one item that stayed in my mind was when the pastor stated that the reason why we were in the Protestant Church was to protest against the false teachings of the Catholic Church. Therefore, I had all the ammunition I needed to justify my hatred.

Fortunately, this hatred didn’t last very long. One thing that hastened its end was the fact that I knew a lot of Catholics who were good to me. Then a few years later, I experienced bullying within my own church youth group. I really couldn’t say that Catholics were behind that bullying. No matter what the circumstance, no one has the right to hate, at least groups of people because a few persons within that group treated one badly. It’s just simply bad stereotyping.

Now to the shameless link to “He Was Weird.” To make a long story short, Mark doesn’t hate any one group of people. Instead, he hates most of the people in the town of Ramsgate for the suffering they have inflicted on him. In fact, feedback from one reader stated that when Mark was shooting up the school, you could feel him releasing all of his hate. Not even Mark would have a right to hate the entire town, though he might be forgiven for hating his actual bullies. I know I did for a long time. However, I knew that keeping all of that hate inside me would have eaten away at me so I let it go. No one should feel that they have a right to hate.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457469554&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird