Somehow I got locked out of my google account a couple of weeks ago and it has taken me all this time to get a new password as I couldn't answer the secret question about my mother!!! I have tried many variations on the same theme of Elizabeth but none of them worked. Has this happened to anyone else when you make secret questions that you can't remember? Anyway I'm back and I was very touched about several people contacting me after the horrific night of carnage in Paris. I live about two hours from Paris in a very rural area and although I know several people in Paris there doesn't seem to be anyone that I know who has been involved. Of course there will be many families and friends who are trying to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones and reconcile the nightmare of the attack to the carefree lifestyle they thought they lived. There has been so much media coverage over the last week and a show of defiance of the Parisians determined to continue the lifestyle they feel they have the right to. Strangely I had been talking about the "Troubles"in Northern Ireland on the afternoon of the 13th and remembering how much it had affected my teenage years but not really realising until I had left the country. Having roadblocks,getting searched in every shop, checking for car bombs, bomb alerts and hearing bombs and gunfire became a part of my life. The terrorists in Ireland also targeted the innocent public most of the time and I remember receiving the phone call to urgently tell my father to get to the RV hospital as soon as he could. It was the Abercorn Bomb in 1972 that went off in a busy restaurant on a Saturday afternoon and killed and maimed many but the memory of my father's face when he returned will haunt me forever.
Terrorists, whoever, wherever they are and whatever religion they are doing it in the name of, are a tiny minority. They are just a few fanatics and psychopaths and do not represent their religions. I do believe that we humans are fundamentally good that peace is the answer but I worry that France and other western powers seem to believe that bombing is the only solution to retaliate. Have bombing and attacking another country always worked? It is a very complex subject that I do not envy the leaders of countries to address but I sincerely hope that life in France and Belgium does not become one of violence, fear and suspicion. I think for me the most poignant scene after the attack was David Martello playing John Lennon's Imagine outside the Bataclan theatre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynsq5ms9lvl. My thoughts are with everyone who have had their loved ones killed wherever they are in the world and whatever they believe in. If each of us begin with being tolerant and kind to each other then surely we will have a peaceful world one day.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religions too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace John Lennon
Terrorists, whoever, wherever they are and whatever religion they are doing it in the name of, are a tiny minority. They are just a few fanatics and psychopaths and do not represent their religions. I do believe that we humans are fundamentally good that peace is the answer but I worry that France and other western powers seem to believe that bombing is the only solution to retaliate. Have bombing and attacking another country always worked? It is a very complex subject that I do not envy the leaders of countries to address but I sincerely hope that life in France and Belgium does not become one of violence, fear and suspicion. I think for me the most poignant scene after the attack was David Martello playing John Lennon's Imagine outside the Bataclan theatre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynsq5ms9lvl. My thoughts are with everyone who have had their loved ones killed wherever they are in the world and whatever they believe in. If each of us begin with being tolerant and kind to each other then surely we will have a peaceful world one day.
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religions too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace John Lennon
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