As-salāmu ʿalaykum
March 14, 2019 9:57 PM Subscribe
This post was deleted for the following reason: It's a horrifying situation and I feel you on feeling moved to make a post about it, but it's still the messy early-reporting stage on this and it'll probably be better to have a little more to work with for a post. -- cortex
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There's an Islamic college and mosque a door down from me. It's school pickup right now here in Australia, and usually I can hear the children playing while they wait to be collected. Not today. Silent as a grave.
I hear them before school, too, loud and boisterous as kids are, I hear their parents shouting at them that they love them, that they hope they have a good day, in voices that sound as broadly Australian as my own, and I hear the Arabic and Bahasa and other medley of tongues as well, and I can't imagine they're saying much different. Eat your lunch, listen to your teacher. Be good. I'll see you soon. I love you.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that kind of simple, common love being so terrifying that the only thing you can do is murder them? That you'd find them in their most peaceful place, those mothers and fathers and children, someone's sons and daughters and most beloved child, and shoot them for the sin of not being white enough, not being hateful and bitter and closed off?
I can imagine heartbreak, but not heartbreak strong enough for Christchurch right now. I want to go and just do something, anything, to show those kids and their families that they're welcome here, they're just as much a part of this place as anyone else. I don't know how to do that without making this about me, my own sorrow and horror, so I'm just staying here, feeling useless and dirty by association.
We can do better than this, surely.
posted by Jilder at 10:03 PM on March 14, 2019
There's an Islamic college and mosque a door down from me. It's school pickup right now here in Australia, and usually I can hear the children playing while they wait to be collected. Not today. Silent as a grave.
I hear them before school, too, loud and boisterous as kids are, I hear their parents shouting at them that they love them, that they hope they have a good day, in voices that sound as broadly Australian as my own, and I hear the Arabic and Bahasa and other medley of tongues as well, and I can't imagine they're saying much different. Eat your lunch, listen to your teacher. Be good. I'll see you soon. I love you.
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that kind of simple, common love being so terrifying that the only thing you can do is murder them? That you'd find them in their most peaceful place, those mothers and fathers and children, someone's sons and daughters and most beloved child, and shoot them for the sin of not being white enough, not being hateful and bitter and closed off?
I can imagine heartbreak, but not heartbreak strong enough for Christchurch right now. I want to go and just do something, anything, to show those kids and their families that they're welcome here, they're just as much a part of this place as anyone else. I don't know how to do that without making this about me, my own sorrow and horror, so I'm just staying here, feeling useless and dirty by association.
We can do better than this, surely.
posted by Jilder at 10:03 PM on March 14, 2019
And also, for the love of god, don't share the goddamn video.
posted by hippybear at 10:04 PM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 10:04 PM on March 14, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by hippybear at 10:02 PM on March 14, 2019