I woke this morning and, my first thought was how dark it looked. Rain is forecast and the whole day is looking gloomy.
Then I thought of the building collapse in Florida, which, to be honest, I had not thought about for days. That is the very definition of horror and tragedy to me – you are at home, where you expect everything to be safe, and suddenly it collapses. A week later, people like me have mainly forgotten.
The same, of course, applies to other, similar collapses. It’s only a couple of months ago that a building collapsed in Gaza, though that was caused by air attack rather than by accident. I’d forgotten about that too.
I’m not sure if it is just me, because I took a decision not to watch the news some years ago, or whether it’s a true for other people too. Am I so callous that this sort of thing passes me by, or are all humans made the same way? If I were to be honest I would say that I have enough to worry about without taking on the worries of other people too.
According to one report, 56 children were killed in Gaza by Israeli bombing. That’s the equivalent of roughly two classes of kids, or four junior rugby teams, who are now dead. If they were from Nottingham I would be very upset about it. If they were in America, I wouldn’t be surprised, or particularly upset, because school shootings happen and unless someone British is shot they don’t usually make our news. In the Middle East I’m never surprised what they do. I gave up trying to follow the politics years ago and as discussing it puts me in danger of appearing anti-Muslim or anti-Semitic I am going to leave it there.
Meanwhile, it’s likely that around 1,900 children will be killed or seriously injured in road accidents in the UK this year. I didn’t even think of that until I started to write this post. We all have cars, so 1,900 kids are clearly an acceptable loss compared to bus travel.
So, callousness, ignorance, insularity, selfishness or a defence mechanism? Why is it that we don’t bother about these things? Or is it just me?