I woke up this morning with my youngest daughter next to me, snuggled up in the bed between my husband and me. Still so soft and sweet and cuddly. Should really get up and start the day but I lay there hugging her as I contemplated what the day might bring.
Then I reached for my phone to check the time. And the news. “Terrorist attacks in Brussels, at least 14 dead and many more injured”. I knew then what the day would bring. Heartache. Worry. Check up on Brussels, follow the news and try to understand yet another terror attack in the heart of Europe.
Paris, Copenhagen, Istanbul and now Brussels.
I prepared for breakfast and put a brave face on. Only to discover that my oldest daughter had put on the news and was scared by what she saw. She demanded answers. Wanted to know what had happened. How and why. Why?
As much as I in vague terms try to explain the evils in the world to my kids – like US school shootings or terrorist attacks in Europe – I am at a total loss for words. I don’t know. I don’t understand. So I really did not do a very good job of explaining how something like this can happen. Why people can be so evil. And why it will most definitely not happen to us.
I was somewhat comforted by my daughter’s response that “terrorists suck”. A simple yet powerful fact. Terrorists do suck.
When you have lived a privileged life and grown up without fear and poverty, disaster or war, it is hard to imagine how you can be filled with so much hatred that you want to end your life as a terrorist by killing innocent people in cold blood. That you want to belong to a cynical group of people who condemn the values of the western world and with such cruelty plan their attacks where it hurts the most.
I am not a very political or religious person. Rather I am raised to always believe in the best in everyone. But these days it is a little hard. It is hard to know how to proceed, how to believe that something like this will not happen again. To me. To my loved ones. I fear how the terrorist attacks may escalate and install fear and hatred, which is precisely what the terrorists are after.
And I fear for the millions of refugees fleeing from the horrors they experience in Syria. Stuck in awful temporary camps as they try to make their way to northern Europe, hoping to find peace and kindness and a life without war. But the borders are closing as Europe finds it increasingly difficult to cope with the intake. Even more so, some Europeans struggle to welcome these refugees who are so desperate for help, while knowing that the terrorists may very well have reached Europe disguised as refugees.
I am completely at a loss. Really, I have no idea how to go from here. I have to put my faith in the leaders of the world and trust that they have the necessary political skills and human insight to protect the western world and conteract terrorism.
My contribution must be to continue to believe in the best in every person and teach my children just that.
NIELSEN AWAY FROM HOME 