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July 15, 2005
Icons of our age?
Four images stand out from the weekend just past.
First, the ongoing saga of clearing up and investigating the bombings in London. The images of emergency services and police working on the surface will be as nothing to the scenes underground as they try to penetrate the debris of the blast in the deep tunnel beneath Russell Square. With no trains running there is no ventilation, so heat and fumes - and Carbon Dioxide levels - will be rising steadily. Even using fans to force air into the tunnels will have little effect unless some really big ones are sited at several points and run continuously at full power. Even then, the conditions in which the search and recovery teams, and now the forensic examiners are having to work will be horrendous.
Second, the images of huge pantechnicons carrying the remains of Muslim men, women and children from the mass graves around Srebrenica where a decade ago over 700 were murdered in a UN "Safe Zone", and the world is still not sure what the final toll really is. At least these bodies have all now been identified and given decent burial in a specially prepared site with a memorial. The leaders of this outrage are still at large and have yet to be brought to justice.
Third, another suicide bombing in Bagdhad killed another 20 Iraqi citizens early on Sunday morning, bringing back into focus the fact that genocide and murder in the name of a cause is still with us - only the places and the faces change. That said, the bombers in Iraq are now fighting their own people as much as anyone else because they do not share the vision of a free and fair society in that benighted country.
What this really all boils down to is power. Who has it and who exercises it. The bombers and murderers want to seize it so they can impose their vision of a perfect society on everyone else, and to take power away from everyone who disagrees with them. This is the stuff from which dictatorships are born.
The Battle of Britain flight over The Mall and Buckingham Palace - at the centre the Lancaster Bomber, flanked on her left by a Spitfire and on the right by a Hurricane.Courtesy of and © by The Daily Telegraph
The Fourth image must be the sight of the crowds in the Horse Guards Parade as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh reviewed the veterans who fought the dictatorships led by Hitler, Mussolini, and Japan. Most of these men are now in their late 70's or early 80's, yet they managed to represent the quiet determination which is still visible in their descendents as they, in their turn, face up to those who use terror and tyranny to suppress those whom they disagree with. There can be very few sights (or sounds) to equal that of a Lancaster bomber escorted by a Spitfire and a Hurricane as they thunder up The Mall above central London, then the bomber's bomb doors open and a cascade of red poppies drop from the sky - over a million of them.
Poppies instead of bombs. The Poppy has been a symbol of the slain since the end of the First World War - and is itself an icon "In Flanders fields the poppies grow, Between the crosses, row on row .... "Courtesy of and © by The Daily Telegraph
In each generation it seems we must continue the fight against men and women whose greed for power has corrupted their minds and their thinking to the point where they can justify any act of evil as "for the greater good" or even as "the will of God". Neither statement is ever true, yet it is seductive - especially to those who feel excluded or threatened.
If we are ever to break this cycle of viciousness, violence, and - yes - pure evil, we need to address the root causes of exclusion and embitterment. We need to find ways to share scarce resources and to involve all our peoples in an informed way in the business of government. Barriers need to be removed, not created by faceless bureaucrats and self-important politicians, and there needs to be much more accountability for the actions of the ruling elites - and that includes the civil servants everywhere.
So, I leave you with the images of our present age - the terrorist bombs, the genocide - and the proud veterans who have stood against tyranny - and the Poppies of the Slain. We must never betray the sacrifices that have been made to keep the world free, but we must also find better ways to keep it free!
Posted by The Gray Monk at July 15, 2005 09:34 AM