As Long as There Are People

I don’t want to write today. My heart’s heavy and I’m…

Angry. I’m furious. I’m heartbroken.

In case you didn’t know, in Nice, 84 people died yesterday whilst celebrating Bastille Day. That included children, and all kinds of people, none of whom deserved to die. A lorry crashed into the crowd, purposefully zigzagging to injure more people. As of now, we don’t know if the man was acting alone, or if he was acting with a terrorist organisation like ISIS.

I am disgusted. Over the last year, so many attacks have happened. Paris, Bagdad, Iraq, and so many more – everywhere it seems, and so many that people lose track. The death tolls just become numbers, but the horror still remains. 20 dead. 180 dead. 36 dead. Dead, dead, dead. People still care. Do they care? Dead.

It’s like a punch to the stomach, every time. Why would they do this? What have people done – nothing. They’ve done nothing to deserve to be caught in the crossfire of something that’s not their war, but that’s what war is now. Killing when you don’t expect it. Hiding behind guns, a wheel, a group that apparently fights for a religion when we know that terrorism has no religion.

Don’t blame Islam. I’ve already seen one person on my personal twitter write something so horrible, akin to “Islam isn’t a religion of peace”, “The left will try to defend Islam now” and my blood boiled. How dare you? How dare you say something like that, when it’s only a small percentage of Muslims who agree with this shit, and hardly any would agree to the innocent people being killed. In every religion, you get good and bad people so to say that many Muslims are in support of this makes me more disgusted than I can fathom. That just spreads the hate even more widely, and what the world and what the people who’s families have been torn apart need now is love.

Yes, I’m making little sense, but I don’t need to. It’s perfectly clear. Innocent lives were lost, and the blame should not be put on a religion. It should be put on the people who organised the killings.

I ask myself, will it ever stop? Because I’m scared. We have no idea of the thoughts and feelings of the people in Syria right now, who fear for their lives. We don’t know. They haven’t attacked the UK yet, and if they do, it’ll be when we least expect it. I wish it wasn’t so terrifying.

My head is clouded, and I can barely think. Attack after attack, bomb after bomb after gun after screams. It’s important to be real with you, not sugar-coat it, because to say it will all be fine is stupid. Listen, and take notice, because ignoring this is tantamount to pulling the wool over your eyes. There are families without a mother, daughter, son, father, granddaughter, sister, brother. That happens all the time, but when it’s closer to home, it hits you in the face. This is REAL.

As long as there are people on this Earth, this will always happen. People will always be killed, because of terrorism, murder, accidents, anything. People will always scream, “WHY?!” and no one can give an answer that’s right.

As long as people are here, though, someone will always fight it. Not me, maybe not you reading this, but someone. Through a haze of fear, that I’m trying to dissipate, we need to remember that not everything is hopeless. I haven’t been personally affected by a terrorist attack yet – no one I know has died – but there is always a possibility.

I may not be able to do anything. But I – we – can spread the word, that en ce moment nous sommes avec Nice, peut-être toujours.

We don’t have guns to fight with, we aren’t powerful and maybe no one will listen, but we still have our voices. Stand up against hate, intollerance, and maybe something will happen. It might not stop the attacks, but at least we can say that one less person’s heart is filled with loathing.

If you are personally affected by the tragedy, I am so sorry. Words are not enough, and I’m just one girl, but I want to reach out and help. Words can only do so much, but they’re all we have right now.

From Elm 🙂