@TheRealJamieKay “Can I brief you” just tell me what you want in as few as words possible, right now while you’re here!! Save us all time, no meeting, no prolonged conversation!!
You worked for forty years.
Up before the alarm. Out in the cold. Through the bad backs and the worse winters. You never once signed on. You were proud of that.
Now you are fifty eight. The body is done. The trade that used you up has no use for you anymore.
And you are sat at home in the middle of the day, not because you are lazy, but because there is nothing left for a man your age who is worn out and ten years short of a pension.
There are two million like you. They will call it worklessness. A statistic. A drain.
They will not call it what it is.
A grafter, used up and thrown back, by a country that took the best of him and left him with nothing to retire on.
You did everything they asked.
And this is the thanks.
"Men are in danger from being in men's spaces."
"So let's send men into women's spaces so that men won't be in danger!"
"Won't that put women in danger?"
"Who cares?"
During Pride Month, I’d like to acknowledge all of the ordinary gay people who simply want to be left alone to live their lives, and who refuse to participate in a corporatized kink fest.
Having just had "travellers" saw straight through a massive steel barrier to trespass on to my farm for the second time in a month, and leave behind a heap of trash when they eventually left, forgive me if I don't join in these celebrations, @MayorofLondon.
For 8 years, people at Morgan Stanley called Rick Rescorla paranoid.
Then September 11th proved he was right.
Rick was a decorated Vietnam veteran who became Head of Security for Morgan Stanley at the World Trade Center.
In 1990, he walked through the underground parking garage and quietly warned:
“Someone could park a truck bomb here and bring this whole place down.”
Executives dismissed the concern as excessive.
Then came February 26, 1993.
A truck bomb exploded in the World Trade Center parking garage almost exactly where Rick predicted.
Six people died.
Over 1,000 were injured.
The evacuation was chaos.
Rick watched terrified employees stumble through smoke-filled stairwells for hours with no real preparation.
Afterward, he made a decision.
Morgan Stanley employees would practice evacuation drills every three months.
All 2,700 of them.
No exceptions.
People hated it.
The company occupied floors 44 through 74 of the South Tower.
That’s a very long walk down when you have meetings, deadlines, and places to be.
Employees complained constantly.
“He’s obsessed.”
“This is unnecessary.”
“He’s paranoid.”
Rick didn’t care.
He timed every evacuation.
Studied bottlenecks.
Adjusted routes.
Ran the drills again.
And during the drills, he sang old military songs to keep people calm while they descended the stairwells.
For 8 years, people rolled their eyes at him.
Then came September 11, 2001.
8:46 a.m.
The North Tower was hit.
An announcement in the South Tower told people to remain at their desks because the building was secure.
Rick ignored it.
He grabbed a bullhorn and ordered:
“Everyone out. Now.”
Then he personally directed employees through the stairwells floor by floor.
And he sang.
The same songs people once mocked during drills suddenly became the sound keeping frightened people calm as they escaped.
At 9:03 a.m., the South Tower was struck.
Rick was still inside helping people evacuate.
His coworkers begged him to leave.
He refused.
“As soon as everyone’s out.”
By 9:45 a.m., nearly all 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees had escaped safely.
Rick could have saved himself.
Instead, he turned around and went back up.
Searching for anyone left behind.
Before the tower collapsed, he called his wife one final time.
“If something happens to me, I want you to know you made my life.”
At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed with Rick still inside.
Final numbers:
Morgan Stanley employees inside that morning:
~2,700
Survived:
~2,687
Most of the 13 lost were in the direct impact zone where no evacuation could have reached them in time.
Rick Rescorla died alongside members of his security team while trying to save others.
But here’s the important part:
Rick didn’t save those people on September 11th.
He saved them for 8 years before it happened.
He saved them every time he forced another evacuation drill.
Every time people mocked him.
Every time he prepared anyway.
The coworkers who thought he was paranoid went home to their families because one man refused to stop taking danger seriously.
Sometimes preparation looks ridiculous until the day it looks like survival.
And sometimes the people everyone dismisses are the only ones truly paying attention.
Rick Rescorla died in the stairwell doing what he had trained for nearly a decade.
And thousands of ordinary lives continued because he never stopped preparing for the day nobody believed would come.
@KirstieMAllsopp This makes no sense, women are at risk because of biology, those women you talk about are enslaved because of their sex, by men, any chance to take away our spaces and voices, little by little is dangerous, it’s not just a changing room, it’s a way to control, but by bit!
Dear Gen X,
I’ve been watching 80s movies and I just need to know…WHERE WERE YOUR PARENTS??
Every child was just wandering the earth unsupervised like a raccoon with house keys. Riding bikes across town at midnight, fighting ghosts, investigating murders, befriending cryptids, hacking government computers for funsies…
And the parents were ALWAYS “out of town” or “working late” while the only adult-adjacent supervision was some random 16-year-old who got dragged into the chaos.
No cell phones. No helmets. No adult supervision. Just vibes, life lessons, and several near-death experiences.
You all weren’t “raised.” You were lightly monitored feral creatures with a bike and unresolved trauma.
I’m genuinely shocked there are enough of you left to populate an entire generation.
This is what entitlement looks like! 🤬
There are nesting waterbirds on this pond on Hampstead Heath... there are also big 'No Swimming' signs, all being totally ignored! 🤬
Pure selfishness... 😒🤬🤬
(Shared from Instagr*m with permission from 'swansofhampsteadheath')
The Supreme Court has ruled that under UK law, trans people never had the rights people like you insisted they had. You misrepresented the law and cheered on the removal of women’s rights. Trans people have lost nothing except the mistaken belief you fostered.