18.7.14

I'm feeling sad

I’m not a political blogger and I’m not going to start ranting politics now. I don’t know who is right or wrong in Syria, in Israel or Gaza, in Russia and the Ukraine. Conflicts can take years and the rights and wrongs become murky and muddied as each side uses might to try and win.

But yesterday the news was too much. Too much to ignore. Too much to bear.

Children killed in Gaza on a beach. I live by the sea, I see children on the beach everyday. The image of children playing and then running for cover as shelling starts, only to be too slow and to die in a violent and terrifying way, played over and over in my mind, with the backdrop of our stretch of beach, gentle waves lapping at the shore.

A passenger plane, filled with people travelling for work, for pleasure, off on holiday, to visit relatives, to attend a medical conference, shot out of the sky. 298 people, including children and babies, dead in an instant. No one needs to take responsibility, we are all responsible. Wars and fighting affect us all even those far away. This tragedy helps to bring home the fact that no one is able to ignore a conflict and hope it goes away. What is the answer? I don’t know, and that is a bigger tragedy. How can anyone stop a war? More fighting? I’m at a loss. I feel lost and sad and angry and helpless.

Last night there was a storm in the UK, lots of loud thunder, rolling and rumbling in the night. Bright flashes of lightning. I wondered how it must be for a parent to lay in bed and hear shelling not thunder. For the crashes to be bricks falling. For the flashes to be fire and explosions. I do not know how anyone can survive mentally, day to day, with that kind of stress. This is not  a political post. It’s a sad post. A post where I don’t know what to do to help and yet somehow feel I must do something.

I am a mother, hearing about children dying is like hearing about my child dying. I cannot read an article or hear a news story about a mothers pain without tears of my own. I am far away and cannot help, don’t know what to do but my tears are real.

Bright umbrella in dark mass of cloud and rain
Copyright: artisticco / 123RF Stock Photo

What are you doing? Ignoring the news? Donating? Writing? Do you feel as lost as I do?

Links to aid agencies that are contributing to humanitarian aid in these areas.

 http://www.worldvision.org.uk/ways-give/make-donation/syria-crisis-appeal/

http://www.redcross.org.uk/syriacrisis/

http://www.icrc.org/eng/donations/index.jsp

5 comments:

  1. I have read so much lately about kids in war zones, I wrote a post on my Little Legacy blog about it, there was a really poignant post on Save The Children's fb about how children don't start wars and so should never be caught up. Thanks for sharing the donation pages.

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  2. I get the helpless feeling: there are so many terrible things going on in the world and it's not possible for any one person to have that much of an impact. But by writing this, you ARE doing something, and everything helps, no matter how small xx

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  3. It makes me sad. Tear sheddingly sad. The pictures, the news reports and the image that really sticks in my mind is the little girl from the Jon Snow video. I wish I understood more, it makes me feel helpless and stupid when my Eldest asks 'can't we just ask them to stop' and I don't know what to say.

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