DREAMS IN THE LAND OF NIGHTMARES
Dreams in the land of nightmares
I AM sure that many share my sense of stunned disbelief at the tragic events in Omagh. The cocktail of emotions is difficult to comprehend or even catalogue.
Fear is there; a realisation that we could have been shopping in our own local town which differs little from Omagh; fear for our children in that we cannot hope to protect them against such dreadful events; incredulity that anyone can believe that such acts will bend anyone to their point of view; anger that we may be plunged back in to the quagmire from which we had all hoped we had escaped.
There is also anger at those politicians who appear incapable of rising above their petty tribal point-scoring and despair that within ourselves we have the capacity to witness such events without them tearing our very souls apart, that death and destruction are such a part of the fabric of this land that we can continue to behave in exactly the way that we did previously.
Maybe this time will be different, maybe this time the indiscriminate murder of so many cannot be absorbed by the collective psyche, maybe this time we will demand that the politicians give the people What they want , the right to live their lives together making homes for their children in peace. Maybe for once we can learn a lesson which will deliver the next generation from the sins of their fathers.
One has to have dreams in a land of nightmares.
ROGER BAXTER.
Caledon.
I AM sure that many share my sense of stunned disbelief at the tragic events in Omagh. The cocktail of emotions is difficult to comprehend or even catalogue.
Fear is there; a realisation that we could have been shopping in our own local town which differs little from Omagh; fear for our children in that we cannot hope to protect them against such dreadful events; incredulity that anyone can believe that such acts will bend anyone to their point of view; anger that we may be plunged back in to the quagmire from which we had all hoped we had escaped.
There is also anger at those politicians who appear incapable of rising above their petty tribal point-scoring and despair that within ourselves we have the capacity to witness such events without them tearing our very souls apart, that death and destruction are such a part of the fabric of this land that we can continue to behave in exactly the way that we did previously.
Maybe this time will be different, maybe this time the indiscriminate murder of so many cannot be absorbed by the collective psyche, maybe this time we will demand that the politicians give the people What they want , the right to live their lives together making homes for their children in peace. Maybe for once we can learn a lesson which will deliver the next generation from the sins of their fathers.
One has to have dreams in a land of nightmares.
ROGER BAXTER.
Caledon.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0705
Published Date: 19-Aug-98
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