SHOWING RESILIENCE
The victims now have names. Over the course of Tuesday, a picture of what happened at the Manchester Arena on Monday night began to emerge. Twenty-two people dead; dozens more injured, and, among the injured, 12 children under the age of 16: the aftermath of a bombing at an Ariana Grande concert.
“All acts of terrorism are cowardly attacks on innocent people, but this attack stands out for its appalling, sickening cowardice, deliberately targeting innocent, defenceless children and young people who should have been enjoying one of the most memorable nights of their lives,” British Prime Minister Theresa May said.
That is what lends such an acute sense of horror to this attack. The bombing in Manchester has its cousins, in the massacre at Le Bataclan in Paris in November 2015; the truck rampage on Bastille Day in Nice last July, where people were out enjoying all life has to offer.
But many of the victims in Manchester were children.
Following other terrorist attacks, who among us hasn’t thought, “there but for the grace of God go I.” It could’ve been any of us.
The targeting of children is an added cruelty. It’s not quite new, though: There have been many terror attacks targeting children, such as in Afghanistan and Nigeria, or even attacks such as the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in December 2012. These are harsh reminders that kids aren’t insulated because of their youth. It must stiffen our resolve. The purpose of terrorism is to create fear, to tempt us, to intimidate us, into living our lives differently. We cannot allow it to. Nor can we allow trolls and troglodytes to seize upon this attack, to poison politics and civil society, to sow divisions where there are none, and to use tragedy and death to enrich and empower themselves.
To live our lives the same isn’t particularly easy, but it’s easy to do for ourselves, when you compare it to the strength needed to ensure the young live this way as well. It’s one thing to be tough for your own sake, it’s quite another to do so for children — or, to let them do it themselves.
Before we could say, without much bluster, that we mustn’t live any differently than before the shootings, or the bombings or the truck attacks.
Since terrorism, now, isn’t a question of “if” but “when,” this is the strength that must be inculcated in the next generation.
Young people are resilient. The challenge to adults, now, is to both lead by example and have the wherewithal to allow the young to show their strength, too.