The Gifted Daft 2016

The Gifted Daft 2016 ©

By Michael Casey

We’ve just watched The Blacklist on tv, as we always do on a Friday Night, James Spader is in it, he’s the guy from Boston Legal, which won Emmys for comedy, it also had Captain Kirk in it. Spader happens to be Frodo’s real life dad too, but in Blacklist he plays a more sinister part. As for the title of tonight’s piece The Gifted Daft 2016, well that’s because I wrote a piece called The Gifted Daft a long time ago but I’ve lost it on my computer, but it may turn up in cyberspace, so I’ve kept the title but added 2016, just in case the original  from maybe 20 years ago turns up.

I was very touched by tonight’s Blacklist, it involved Autist children, it also talked about the value of Love and Family, and the urge to Love and have a family. It’s good that Drama can talk about such things without being all preachy or holier than thou. Of Mice and Men does have a “simple” character in it, who in the end is “mercy killed” as his friend knows being in Jail would be worse than death for him.

Tonight’s Blacklist had a “witch” who killed children when they reached 12, and had a mad and bad poetry death for the kids. In Logan’s run 30 was the Death Age, and a red light flashed in people’s palms. So that is the background, what is so important and amazing is how some people can bring out the best in Autistic children. You have to work hard, and love even harder to look after an Autistic child.

Some Autistic child do have special gifts, such as the child, now a middle aged man who could draw buildings. There are many other examples, which you’ll all know from your own experience or observations. We all remember Rain Man and Dustin Hoffman, some events strike a chord with us, events from our own lives. Some events we are proud of and some we’d wish we could forget, just to let the pain go.

As well as Autism there is the normal, if normal is the right word, mental handicap, people who need to be cared for on a permanent basis. You may have seen a carer take a few people out for a walk in the sun, or a ride on the bus. As you watch several things will pass through your head, Jesus how these people are suffering, thank God my own children are “normal” and how amazing these carers are. Some turn the other way and cannot even look at the “spectacle” it all depends on your own life experience, will you cross the road to avoid them or are you a Samaritan.

Today in the news we hear more about the horrors of Nazi Death Camps, things that have not been spoke about even after 70 years. I’m not going to be specific, but it was the Nazi’s fault, nobody else’s. Sadly we have modern “Nazis” destroying the world’s peace and harmony, using the internet to brainwash people. Hitler’s Nazis destroyed all they did not like, including the handicapped, it was a vacuum cleaner of hate, leaving destruction behind.

So what do you see when the handicapped are walking in the sun, being shepherded by their carers, I don’t know about you but I see Love. Yes Love, nobody does that kind of job for the pennies they earn, it is Love, there is no other word for it. The handicapped may be scruffy, and you may even think the carers are even scruffier, but they do seem happy, it’s not a family Disney would show, but it is a family none the less.

From my vantage point where I write I daily see a wheelchair wiz  past with a bobble-hatted carer in tow, sometimes I see them in the street when I’m doing a bit of shopping. Sometimes I see a nurse who looked after me when I was in hospital, they may not recognise me as they see so many people in their professional life. So what am I trying to say, I suppose I’m trying to say thank you, thank you to them for looking after me as an individual.

I’m also trying to say I am proud of them and what they do for the least of our brethren, I include myself amongst the least, we are a lucky Society because we do care for all of our Brethren. It’s when we stop doing that, that we start to slide, hopefully never to Nazism, but any other kind of ism that throws people away, for I know in my present physical state I’m be amongst the first led to the gaschamber.