Another Sad Day In Manchester
Today I don’t really want to write about therapy or complain about some of my colleagues, rather I want to write about the tragedy of last night’s bomb attack at the MEN Arena. It now appears that 22 have died and at least 50 more have been injured. I suppose it was unreasonable to assume that my city would avoid the current wave of terrorism sweeping the world. Indeed Manchester is no stranger to terrorism.
For those who remember the 15th of June 1996 when an IRA bomb ripped through the city centre of Manchester, we here in Manchester know what terrorism is. Of course, however, in 1996 the IRA sent a warning 90 minutes before the bomb went off (the largest bomb detonated in the UK since World War 2). Many were evacuated, and many were injured but no one died.
The attack yesterday, gave no warning and people died. It was a pop concert, those who were in attendance were innocents in the truest sense of the word. Those of us with conscience ask the inevitable why? However, there are no answers. Hatred is blind, hatred is irrational, hatred is evil.
Obviously, there will be many questions asked over the coming days and weeks. Some will use this tragedy to fuel more hate, some politicians will use this for shameless political gain, and some people will use this to justify the notion that we as a people should look inwards and forget our long history of being a tolerant free society. We have been hurt before, we may well be hurt again, this is the price we pay for the freedom we enjoy. We are angry, of that there is no doubt, but we are British and we as a society are greater than any anger any hurt. We are not called Great Britain for nothing.
My heart goes out to all those affected, and I hope that the time will come when this sort of atrocity is consigned to the waste bin of history.
