My Family Values: Tony Benn

[supernova]

I was taught to think for myself, to say what I mean, mean what I say and do what I said I would do, if I had the chance. That was my dad's advice, and I have tried to follow it all my life.

My mother used to read the Bible to me every night. She told me that the story of the Bible is the story of the conflict between the kings and the prophets: the kings who have power and the prophets who teach righteousness. She taught me to support the prophets over the kings. It's got me into a lot of trouble in my life! But the older I get, the more relevant I find it.

As a child, I remember sitting on my maternal grandmother's bed. She was very ill and I thought she was about to die. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright and said, "The great thing about your last journey is that you don't have to pack."

My opinions are all based on what I have seen for myself. My horror of war derives from direct experience. As a 15-year-old I was in London during the blitz. We used to go down into the shelter every night; we lived on Millbank and the shelter was underground, in what is now the MI5 building. Coming out of the shelter every morning, I could see Docklands burning in the distance. One night I believe 400 people were killed by a bomb near to where I lived. Even today when I hear an air-raid siren it sends a cold chill through me. And I still miss my elder brother Michael, an RAF pilot, who was killed aged 22 in 1944.

complete essay: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/18/family2

Beautiful piece about being yourself and loving others as yourself.

[Joe Chi Minh]

1. Boy ,do we need a Government of people with values like his now!

He was a minister when our country had a proper welfare state, and a happy, half-decent society. Now, it's economic oppression and even those in work are overworked, underpaid, and subject to the innumerable stresses of an ever more fragmented and anomic society.