There are times in this world, in this life, when things
happen that just make you speechless, that make you stop and think and wonder
if there is anything you do that can make a difference to the world that we
live in. There have been a few in my own
lifetime – hearing of the death of John Lennon, Challenger, the Dunblane
massacre, and in line with most civilised people 9/11.
This last fortnight in the UK, we’ve had two of those
incidents. A fanaticism that says the
way to bring people to their world view is to deliberately set out to
perpetrate a slaughter of the innocents both illustrates the evil at the heart
of that fanaticism, and also illustrates the essential futility of that
argument. They were young people –
children – at a concert celebrating life, and instead…
On the day, I made a short tweet in support of the people
who had gone to help, and in sympathy for those who had lost someone, but
somehow that was inadequate. I freely
admit, I found it hard to concentrate on anything for the days following that –
I have grown children, but one lived in Manchester for a time, and the other is
about to leave for University, and you picture what you would do if it was
them.
Then this last week I’ve been ill, and had a bit of time to
think, try to write – and I could not. I
could not get out the stories I wanted to tell, and I wasn’t sure why. And then there were the events in London last
night, and my heart was cold again.
And that was the problem – my heart was cold. I had lost sight of an essential fact, but
others have reminded me of it today. If
we are going to show them we are wrong, being afraid and sitting on our derrieres
is not the answer. We have to stand up,
and we have to be proud to stand up and show them they are wrong, that they
cannot make us afraid.
That whatever faults I have, at my heart, at my core, there
is more than anything love for my fellow man, and that love cannot be allowed
to dim. So do not allow it to dim, do
not let your light hide under a bushel.
Which brings me to this – KP, Kev Pickering is a nom de
plume, but if I am going to stand up, I need to stand up as Kev Pickering and
as myself. But for various reasons, I
need to continue to write under this name.
If you want to know who I am in real life (whatever that means) then
click here. If you don’t. don’t. But we need to stand up and be counted.
New stories will be here, God Willing, next Friday. Until then, I remain here, now and always,
KP
You are a brave man!
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about the brave people in UK and how they stand up for each other even after so many attacks. This is in my eyes the only civilized way to meet them. I like to think that we in Sweden at least was a little inspired of the English people when we had that attack in Stockholm a couple of months ago.
Take care so you soon can be back with more stunning stories. I like to think you write them for yourself and then is kind enough to let us read them
Hi there Kev.
ReplyDeleteVery well said. People in the UK wont bow down and be beaten into submission by an oppressive regime that discriminates against women and children being educated and who destroys art and architecture because they interpret their Holy books wrongly and take an extreme view of things.
These people will never get elected because of their extremist views and their actions to kill women and children only cement into decent peoples minds what a deplorable bunch of cowardly religious fanatics they really are.
Children are the innocents of the world, and our future. When you target them, then the whole world will rise and stand against them until they are all locked up and finally out of harms way.
Emma Bond