spittingcat's posterous

>From: "10 Downing Street"
>To: "e-petition signatories"
>Date: 11 September, 2009 10:38:01 AM BST
>Subject: Government response to petition 'turing'
>
>Thank you for signing this petition. The Prime Minister has written a
>response. Please read below.
>
>Prime Minister: 2009 has been a year of deep reflection �� a chance for
>Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who
>came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred
>in us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the British
>experience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to
>honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches
>of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which
>have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take
>up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am
>both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition of computer scientists,
>historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark and
>celebrate another contribution to Britain��s fight against the darkness of
>dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.
>
>Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on
>breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that,
>without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could
>well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can
>point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt
>of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that
>he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ��gross
>indecency�� in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence �� and he
>was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemical
>castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own
>life just two years later.
>
>Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing
>and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt
>with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his
>treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance
>to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and
>the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted
>under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions more
>lived in fear of conviction.
>
>I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this
>government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT
>community. This recognition of Alan��s status as one of Britain��s most
>famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long
>overdue.
>
>But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to
>humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united,
>democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once
>the theatre of mankind��s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in
>living memory, people could become so consumed by hate �� by
>anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices
>�� that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European
>landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls
>which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is
>thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism,
>people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war
>are part of Europe��s history and not Europe��s present.
>
>So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely
>thanks to Alan��s work I am very proud to say: we��re sorry, you deserved
>so much better.
>
>Gordon Brown
>
>If you would like to help preserve Alan Turing's memory for future
>generations, please donate here: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/
>
>Petition information - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/
>
>If you would like to opt out of receiving further mail on this or any other
>petitions you signed, please email optout@petitions.pm.gov.uk
>
>

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September 10, 2009

Treatment of Alan Turing was “appalling” - PM | Number10.gov.uk

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20571

Everyone should read this and reflect.

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June 8, 2009

"Red Red Rose" #musicmonday Help make the video

The Track:

Red Red Rose by Hope And Social

(download)

Help make the Video:

http://www.hopeandsocial.com/redRedRose_video

The lyrics:

At ten past eight,
I'm leaving home,
We'll drive along the bypass 'til we find that road.
The coastal road,
To somewhere new,
Where they don't treat the drink they drink as something they should cling on to.

At ten past nine,
I'll take that flight,
And yes we're looking older now but you live this way you're bound to.
We'll wave goodbye,
To all that grey,
But at least a climate where the seasons mark out with distinctive change.

And tomorrow am,
We'll start anew,
In a village where the people there can talk about religious views,
Without the need,
Of laws in reams.
Or the worry that the words you use will light some all engulfing fuse.

The blue skies the green fields i keep them all in here...
The blue skies the green fields i keep them all in here...
The blue skies the green fields i keep them all in here...
The blue skies the green fields i keep them all in here...

And tomorrow am,
In somewhere new,
In a different place you feel the weight of everything you've been through.
So I've got to change,
I need to change,
Cos I don't talk to you no more without the need of fear or rage.

The speeches, the anthem, the law with no momentum; I cannot give myself to you.
We're so much older now we need a new home town, a place that we can call our own.
And doll you're proof enough that people are some good they just need space where they can grow.
With speeches and anthems the shape and size of this one, they just need space where they can grow.

The blue skies the green fields i keep them all in here...
The blue skies the green fields i keep them all in here...
The blue skies the green fields i keep them all in here...
The blue skies the green fields I'm tired of keeping them in here..