Sunday 26 May 2013

It is not as if we are not used to the signs of trouble. Helicopters hovering are a common sight and violence on the streets seems common too. When the helicopter started to hover some while before home time on Wednesday it hardly registered, but then, as it stayed there we started to wonder what was going on. As one parent turned up and was looking at her phone, I was outside clearing up while the children had their snacks indoors. I asked if she knew what was going on and she said she thought there had been a stabbing. Awful but not shocking.(Shocking that it is not shocking) Another parent had been held up in the traffic building up, and she thought someone had been killed in the job centre and was lying there on the floor. I worried about my colleague being able to get home, and waited for her to text that she had got her train OK before setting off and driving round all the back streets to avoid the traffic. I didn't think to look what had happened until I got home. I first read a report on the local newspaper website which had graphic descriptions of events, and the one that caught my eye the most was local rapper Boya Dee's on Twitter. I turned on the computer and looked at everything many times, including the video of one of the men talking about what he had done and why. Not possible to make this seem real. It was so film like and, well, surreal. Why is the big thing of course because there is no answer to that. He had his answer, governments have theirs and I have been thinking of nothing else since. If I was the family of Lee Rigby I can't imagine recovering from that. Not ever. If I was the family of a child or anyone else killed by a bomb in foreign country where I am lucky enough not to live, I can't imagine recovering from that either. None of it is right. The tweet that the rapper put later on is the thing I keep coming back to-'I hope that one day we can all learn to purely co-exist.' I also keep thinking of the words of my school hymn, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. I am not religious and am, I suppose, an agnostic at best but the words of this hymn which we sung every week have always stayed with me, as they are so beautiful and sensible. It is the first and the last two verses that I like the most.


7 comments:

Leenie said...

I've heard the sad and horrific news of that event on the radio. I had no idea it happened so close to you. So awful and so beyond comprehension. You're right, there is probably no way his family and friends will ever fully recover from the shock.

Kat Mortensen said...

Even being far-removed from this physically, the rest of the world is stunned. I can only imagine how it must be to be so close to the scene.

You're right about it being like a movie. In many ways, I think the fact that we as human beings put things like this in movies and call it "entertainment" has much to do with how these things come into being in the first place.

I realize this was a political act in the minds of these killers, but I do think we perpetuate such things.

We are reeling from a situation in our vicinity where a young family man took two men on a test-drive to sell his pick-up truck and never came home. His young wife (with baby) would learn a few days later that he had been murdered in a "thrill-kill" by three suspects (two have been arrested and one is still at large). His remains were found burned up in a livestock incinerator on a farm.

Evil exists. Sometimes it is right on your doorstep. I for one, pray that Good will eventually triumph.

Kat

Rattling On said...

I can't imagine hating anyone enough to want to kill them, never mind choosing someone at random. It's what I worry about for my own girls; not disease or accident (although those worries are ever-present)but the random acts of violence that seem to be becoming ever-present and justified by some belief or other.
Strangely, I was singing that hymn to myself the other day.

Sarah said...

That's awful Kat. I find myself thinking about what the world is coming to then I realise I sound really old. Though there have always been terrible events I think you are right that we don't help the situation with the amount of violence that is casually on tv, in games and films.

Kat Mortensen said...

Perhaps, it was always there, but now with the immediacy that technology provides, we are right there with it. That's no blessing.

Thanks for the hymn, and Nanci Griffith is one of my favourites.

Kat

Sarah said...

Mine too.

Anairam said...

A sad and shocking occurrence. I live in a country where terrible and shocking and violent events have always happened. I grew up with it, and I remember the freedom and relief I felt when I finally travelled overseas, away from the violence and hatred. But I guess there are no places left where one can escape any more...