"If you're going through hell, keep going." -- Winston Churchill

..."Suzanne takes your hand, and she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers from Salvation Army counters
And the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor
And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed, there are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever
while Suzanne holds the mirror" ........SUZANNE (Leonard Cohen)

On my way to dinner out with new friends, we had to walk past a bar open to the hallway. It was a huge alcove filled with tables and people, and a long bar. A railing was along the open side, with tables for two placed along it. Slumped in two of those chairs.. asleep and waiting for their parents to stop drinking and take them home, were two kids. They were expatriate children, about eight and twelve. What is it with those parents?? Who in their right minds think that is acceptable, to leave your kids sleeping at the edge of the bar while you get drunk? Nothing can be done by me.

Beautiful, half naked kids along the streets. tiny ones. they walk in threes, fours, stopping to stare at a display of grapes or vendor foods. Do they belong to someone?

I talked to my sister's friend. She is a missionary hoping to instigate a program urging Indian people to take homeless children in and raise them as their own. Can this happen? In this place where caste is written in stone, and the untouchables are lower than animals? where people take children in, but raise them as house help? will they make the transition? CAN they avoid the shunning and disapproval? will the kids be able to go to school?

I read two stories in the paper. One was about three people arrested for not taking care of animals. -----On the opposite page was a story and pictures of a rout by the police who used caning force, beating everyone in their path. The huts and rude shelters of the "slum dwellers" were razed to the ground, and when they protested en masse, they were beaten with canes. Women, children, and boys and men, all alike. The pictures showed a baby with a head wound, and hundreds of sad, well worn shoes left behind as the owners fled in panic. The people say they had permission from the police for the protest, but the police say they obstructed traffic and were unruly. --I see on one hand, a people who revere the rights of animals, and on the other an ability to accept that being beaten by police for causing a nuisance is your lot in life.

(Shades of the sixties. "The times they are a'changin", in India)

People can be cruel and truly dense, when defending what they THINK is right. On all sides. ALL sides. When dealing with heart issues, you need to be able to see with your heart and think with your intellect.