Hearing News Tuesday morning of a terrorist attack in Manchester, England the previous evening left us with feelings similar to when the morning jets roared through the World Trade Center in 2001.
Our young kids were getting ready for school on Tuesday, much like the twins busied about the house on 9/11.
If we recall, breakfast that September day back then was similar to this Tuesday, as were the repeated calls by dad to finish up and great ready for the day. Glimpses of the Newscast in between routine tasks seemed a lot like years ago, where our mind wasn’t quite grasping what was happening.
This current event was so senseless, we felt a bit bewildered by it all. Perhaps that is the curse of this business: we want to make sense of events and discover why.
It’s a question we cannot answer and one that plagues political minds around the globe, whether in France, Belgium, England, the United States or even Canada. How can such wanton destruction happen, let alone be justified?
We don’t consider our household too different from others, here or elsewhere. We try our best for our family, to help them enjoy life and to keep them free from harm.
Perhaps like parents in Manchester, who let kids attend a concert, there would be some worry, but to be presented with a horror like this is something unimaginable. We don’t have to contend with that type of thing here in Wellington County, where, for the most part, we are well and happy.
One of our workmates shared a worry while we talked through this latest terrorist action. His boy, grown up and married, is currently travelling in England. Although safe from harm and well away from Manchester, such events get people thinking. What if? It’s a tough question and certainly one we are glad he didn’t have to live through.
We forget the exact conversation point, but we remember our dad finishing up a conversation with the observation that the human mind can rationalize anything. To his way of thinking, it was one thing to come up with excuses for a course of action, but to rationalize events or activities was a whole different thing.
Somehow, a wicked mind is able to vindicate, excuse, explain or justify activities that most of us see as abhorrent. For example, mowing down pedestrians, exploding a bomb to kill and maim others – there can be no justification.
How then should humanity respond? That becomes the question and remains the challenge of our times.
