Loss of innocence is just one victim of terror
A makeshift memorial has been established outside SaskTel Centre following Monday’s terrorist attack, which killed 25 concertgoers and wounded 60 others.
Meanwhile, the shaken residents of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan are trying to make sense of the devastation.
“I just don’t feel safe anymore. If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere,” said one mourner.
That’s a news story I never want to see. And yet, with the never-ending drumbeat of terrorist bombings, you have to wonder if it could happen here — as it happened on Monday in Manchester, where more than 20,000 people had gathered for a concert by Ariana Grande when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowd.
The Manchester bombing “stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardice — deliberately targeting innocent and defenceless young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives,” said British Prime Minister Theresa May.
You can’t categorize terror bombings as if some are worse than others. Some are bigger than others, but it’s not as if some are especially bad — they’re all bad. But one tragedy within the tragedy is how we in the West seem to be more appalled when it happens to people we identify with, like parents and kids at a pop concert. On Feb. 16 in Sehwan, Pakistan, a terrorist blew himself up at a shrine after evening prayers. Ninety people were killed, 21 of them children, and 300 injured. I can’t remember this one on the news.
It’s human nature that Manchester hits us harder. One is reminded of the opening scene of the movie Children of Men. The main character steps into a coffee shop — something we all can identify with — gets his order and exits. Then, when he’s on the sidewalk, a massive explosion obliterates the shop. The viewer is shocked, but the main character isn’t.
The movie is set in the year 2027 and it’s clear that terrorism is just another exhausting element of daily life. Although we’re still horrified in 2017, it feels like we’re ahead of schedule.
This is clearly the world we live in now. It wasn’t always so. I remember when I was a kid and there would be something on the news about a terrorist attack, likely courtesy of the IRA. One thing that always mystified me was how the perpetrators would “claim responsibility” for the killings. In my innocence, I thought they were foolishly giving themselves away.
Another thing I couldn’t comprehend was the notion of suicide. I remember being deeply disturbed seeing on the TV news monks setting themselves on fire to protest the Vietnam War.
Dying on purpose was an unspeakably grim concept.
If my innocence was gradually eroded, my kids’ was obliterated when the jets hit the World Trade Center. They have grown up in the age of terrorism and seemingly pointless revenge wars that do a better job of multiplying enemies than subtracting them.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is calling the Manchester perpetrators “evil losers.” His colloquial tone isn’t just sad and embarrassing, it’s proof that his onedimensional view of the world won’t be much help in this fight.
If the goal of terrorists is to rob people of their security, maybe they’re winning.
But I don’t fear terrorism in my safe little corner of the world, not yet anyway. The scary thing is, neither did anyone at the Ariana Grande concert.