It’s very easy to find ourselves watching atrocities captured on our TV screens and remain immune to it all, defeated by our inabilities. After all, ‘we can’t do anything about it’. Watching the media coverage of flight MH17 has had me screaming at the newspaper sites and the TV, frustrated and feeling hopeless. There simply has to be something that I can do.
Then I remembered what my father told me: ‘make noise and you’ll be heard. It’s the squeaky door that gets cleaned.’
He couldn’t be more right.
I was thinking about the flight last night. When we get on a plane, we sign a non-verbal agreement, subconsciously accepting that this plane could crash. It’s the same agreement we sign when we get in a car, or on a roller coaster. We weigh up the odds, assess the risk of danger and then decide if it’s worth the risk – often the risk is so minor we rarely even think of it at all.
It is a complete abuse of trust, that the people on flight MH17 had no concept of the third danger. That is, people on land shooting a missile at their aircraft. It’s difficult to comprehend, unfathomable even. How can we digest that? How can we ever weigh up the dangers when such an occurrence is completely unimaginable? Things like this only happen in Bruce Willis movies – right?
I began to feel afraid, for this third danger I’d never comprehended. Then I realised that by allowing myself to feel nervous about flying, I would be allowing the terrorists to win – after all, by definition a terrorist is someone who creates a sense of mass panic and fear in the pursuit of political aims.
Then I woke this morning and was faced with a brutal and descriptive account of the crash site and the mistreatment of the victims. These victims were people, they were friends, families, loved ones. For us to dehumanise them, that would be the injustice! The reporter (Iain Birrell) described the body of a little girl, the photographs of a family with a new born baby (the camera had been looted) and even the unsanctioned removal of bodies by the supposed Russian government. Andrew Marr emphasised this saying, ‘what we’re seeing from the Russians is obfuscation and obstruction.’ Sadly, I doubt anyone will ever be held accountable for such loss. But to focus on that would be missing the point, as Alexandra Anghel, the sister of a Canadian victim said ‘that won’t bring my brother back.’
What we should all be fighting for here is dignity and respect for the people who boarded that flight. And yes, this is an emotionally charged blog entry, because how can it not be? More than anything right now, I want those people to come home. To be reunited with their families. To be treated with love. Andrew Marr emphasised that this should be happening, after all ‘there is one party in the world who clearly has the ability to snap his fingers and it would be done and that is Vladimir Putin.’
Whilst there is so little we can do, there is a lot our government can. They can place pressure on Putin who, in Cameron’s words, ‘must do more.’ With the influence of David Cameron we can bring these people home. That is why this morning I contacted the Prime Minister’s Office, wanting the reassurance that our government is representing the needs of its people and I urge you to do the same, if only to show your support. The only thing we can do is use social media to put pressure on the government to act (hence the blog entry). Because, I can’t stand by and watch the news coverage anymore.
If it were your friend, family member or loved one, you’d want the backing of the nation to help you bring them home. Hopefully with the British Government’s assistance and their cooperation with other nations, all families can be reunited with their loved ones.
Remember: Make noise and you’ll be heard.
CONTACT THE PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE HERE: https://email.number10.gov.uk/
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