Wednesday 23 March 2016

With Love from Manchester to Brussels




[Image description: different races' hands wrapped around the globe; © & courtesy Alan blog]

Yesterday, I needed to know my Belgian friends were safe and sound. I know, I'm a terrible worrier. I suppose as in situations like this one in Brussels, Ankara, Paris, etc. it makes me feel so impotent.

[Image description: destruction in Manchester; courtesy Wikipedia]

Of course it also brings back memories of when Manchester was bombed in 1996. In those days most of us did not have mobiles (& obviously no internet, no facebook, no instant-messaging) and the telephone system, as happened in Brussels, could not cope.

My father was frantic as I used to take my nephew into the city every Saturday. Thankfully, we were saved due to it being my Grandma's birthday: I had taken the wee one to see his great-grandmother with a little gift to Hale, a suburb approximately nine miles/fourteen kilometres from the city centre. We heard the resounding and powerful boom. And then the awful silence. I shall never forget it.

Nor shall I forget just how much I cared for my loved-ones at that moment; indeed, for all Life.

I am a pacifist and wholeheartedly believe that violence only begets further violence. We have to sit down and talk and not walk away from our enemies until we can thrash out solutions.

Please, let's give Peace a chance.



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