Home is...

I'm unhappy.

So I came back to London, back home. Home's where the heart is, right? Home is where we can relax and let the world pass us by, where we can truly be ourselves, where we can be in our own skin naked for all the world to see. So then why do I not feel at home?

Coming back from my gap year has really widened my eyes to what life here in London has become and is becoming. There is this tension in the air, a stiffness choking everyone everywhere. And it seems that everyone feels it, yet nothing is being done about it. I have seen more police out on the streets in the past 3 days doing actual police work than I saw from the Israeli police during the 9 months I spent there. I'm not just talking about seeing more street patrols or vehicles. Arresting people, closing streets off, and zooming past me at a million miles and hour with sirens wailing have all occurred withing the last 72 hours. What is going on!

Its a dream. All that are left are stories about how as a kids, my parents would walk freely about with front doors left open, or how they used to go out at night because back then nobody needed a bullet proof vest or a rape alarm. Back then, we new our neighbours too. If their alarm went off they would go and investigate. Now, if a neighbours house alarm went off, I would do one of a number of things:
- Lock all the doors, making sure each door was double/triple locked
- Peek outside the window to see what might happen, secretly hoping that I would spot the robber, then call the police and save the day
- Pretend that nothing is going on and life my life as normal.

Now that alarm could be going off for 15 minutes and I would still do nothing except huff and puff at how obnoxious the neighbours were being, "Who would install such a ridiculously stupid sounding alarm, Pah!".

But its not just about crazy police and obnoxious alarms, it goes a lot deeper than that.

I am an British citizen. Now living in this democratic state allows many different people from many different backgrounds to live in peace and harmony. Blacks can sit with Whites. Jews can sit with Muslims, and women have equal rights to men. So then why is it that in many areas not just in London but around the UK, it is dangerous to go out once the sun goes down? Why do all my friends tell me that I should never drive through certain areas in town unless I want to get shot? Why have many of my friends been mugged, both girls and boys? Is there an answer to all of this?

What a stupid question, of course there is. Political Correctness. Our society has forgotten what it is like to be sincere, to be polite and kind, to do things for one another without asking questions. We have forgotten about respect, about respect for our elders, for each other and for ourselves. You might be shaking your head going "No, no, no..., its not a lack of respect. Instead, its the education system...or the influx of immigrants...or this...or that", I agree. There is a whole host of reasons as to why our society is as it is, but what is being done about it? Nothing.
Do we want to keep living like this? Are we going to sit back and wait for something horrific to happen until we start to fight for what we want? Well excuse me, but I am going to start now.

I want to live in a country that accepts me for who I am. I want to walk down the street and feel proud to be living here at any time of the day. I want a society that accepts everyone for who they are and what they want to be, and those that don't agree can either learn to or leave. I want to wake up in the morning and not worry that I might be beaten or even blown up on my way to work. But most important, I want to be happy and I want to be home. I can only hope that you do to.