This Ongoing War: A Blog: 24-Oct-14: When not knowing what to say can be the most powerful message

Friday, October 24, 2014

24-Oct-14: When not knowing what to say can be the most powerful message

The victim, standing guard, just
minutes before he was killed
[Image Source]

It doesn't take carefully crafted speeches. Expressing sincere remorse for terrorism when the perpetrator is someone from your country, your faith, your community or (as in this case) your family can be an astonishingly effective thing.

The mother of the man accused of killing a soldier at Ottawa's war memorial then storming Parliament before being shot dead says she is crying for the victims of the shooting, not her son. In a brief and tear-filled telephone interview on Thursday, Susan Bibeau said she did not know what to say to those hurt in the attack. Just before 10am on Wednesday local time (1am AEDT Thursday), a gunman shot and killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo and then opened fire on the country's Parliament buildings. "Can you ever explain something like this?" she said. "We are sorry." [The Age, October 24, 2014]

The power and clarity is breathtaking.

(Corporal Cirillo was standing guard at Canada's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier War Memorial in Ottawa on Wednesday when he was shot and killed by a masked gunman. There were two dramatic shootings in Canada's capital that morning, the second one occurring inside the Parliament.)

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