right, so, lovely. today, being the date of publication (and not necessarily the day on which you read it, look you see), is the one called Valentine's Day. a day set aside, or demarcated, for celebrations or other such declarations of love, affection and what have you. make what you will of such a date being placed as central to the middle of a month what the Romans created to simply place all unlucky things in life in.
this strikes me as an ideal time to look at one of the more dominant, if not major, news stories of the year so far, with the year of course being the year 2021. which was supposed to be so much better than 2020. no, i am not speaking (or rather writing) of the great plague which threatens to kill us all, the fallout from all of that "Brexit" business, the surge in armed insurrection by Scottish nationalists, the continued devaluation of the singles chart, attempts at another counter-revolutionary war in America or any other such matter. rather, the more pressing concern of how a group of people wish to wander around London, culling (which is to say killing) parakeets.
before addressing the complex question of whether or not we should allow armed bird haters to wander around London sporadically killing anything they consider to be a parakeet (answer = no), it is important to establish how, when, and for what reason so many parakeets embraced London as their home. it is so that this is, really, the only aspect of the story which interested me.
it is the world i wish to live in, truly and really, where these aspects of rock mythology exist. sadly, or alas, there are many who seek to simply debunk this theory, such as this article right here. whilst not denying the two incidents happened, there is a keenness to deny it is this alone which is responsible. well, ignore such. just because the world of music is boring and dull now, in the present day, does not mean it was always so. let the proliferation of parakeets in London be yet more reasons we remember the legacy of Jimi and George.
yet still this question remains. it is a question which one would naturally presume was considered yet never spoken of, but it has been vocalised. that question is, as mentioned earlier, of whether or not we should let those upset or "offended" by the presence of parakeets go around and "cull" them, which of course is a polite and sensibility safe way of saying kill them.
no, of course we should not. whereas i am no crusader or champion of the planet (nothing lasts forever), even i, a relic from a time gone by, has learned from our folly. humans remain the only known species to have roamed this planet that kill for reasons other than necessity. despite the well documented chaos, disruption and damage caused by this - eliminating species, eroding ecosystems - for some reason we remain inclined to seek ways to do it still.
presumably a lot of the will to seek to "cull" parakeets stems from the fact that it is a predominantly London (innit) issue, affecting Londoners. they do appear to exist in an isolationist way from the remainder of the nation, a nation they can often scant accept being part of. had it been people in Burnley, or Cardiff, or Uttoxeter or similar wishing to "cull" parakeets, they would have been up in arms down there in London, doing them fancy marches they are keen on, declaring it barbaric. and yet, because it affects London, it is somehow "different", and we "don't understand", and so they should be allowed to do as they please.
may parakeets fly free, or whatever they do, for many years to come. people who for some reason do not like them need to learn, and hopefully accept, that not everything in life always goes how you want it to, and such is not always cause for drama or distress.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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