The
last two days have been something I never, ever want to live through
again. But sitting with my usual group of friends tonight, I
realised how far the human race still has to go. When dreadful
things happen, it is so easy to generalise and lose sight of the good
in the people around us. We seem to lose all sense of objectivity
and become judgemental. It's understandable, but it's so, so wrong.
We
had an incident yesterday where good people were killed or injured
and the impact it has had on our lives cannot be explained to anyone
who has never been in this type of environment. I don't mean that to
sound condescending – but it is true. The initial shock left us
all reeling and not entirely sure where to turn. Many of my regulars
turned to me for distraction and in a way, it was good for me, as it
kept me busy and therefore stopped me from dwelling on things.
What
I saw yesterday heartened me, as I watched people supporting and
helping each other. Thoughts and prayers were sent to the victims
families and in general, the best of human nature came out. I felt
proud to be among them and honoured to be included.
Then
today, the other side of our nature started to show. The situation
sadly is not clear, we don't and probably won't ever have sufficient
information. But people started to make assumptions and jump to
conclusions. All of a sudden we seemed to forget all the wonderful
people we have come to know, all the good we have seen in them, all
the positive changes we have seen. The actions of one man grew to
represent the make up of an entire nation. Our grief and anger
clouded our judgement and all of a sudden we forgot that one person
is hardly representative of a people. As has happened all over the
world on many different occasions, the actions of a minority of
people have overtaken the good in the rest of a nation. The
expression 'cannot see the wood for the trees' springs to mind and
eloquently expresses what I am finding it so hard to say.
One
man took up arms and destroyed the lives of other's and now we are
struggling to see the fact that his actions were just that – HIS
ACTIONS. But as the hurt and anger engulfs us, we are losing sight
of that and somehow, we have to fight our tendency to generalise.
The
pain will last for a while, I know and I am pretty sure the anger
will too, but I just hope that we can see our way through this,
without making judgements that harm those who don't deserve it. We
cannot blame a group of people for the actions of one among them.
To
end this post, I would just like to send out thoughts and prayers
specifically to the friends and families of those who lost their
lives or were injured in Afghanistan yesterday, Tuesday 5th
August 2014 and generally to all who have suffered as a result of
wars and conflicts in the past. I can't say it any better, so I
quote 'We will remember them'.
