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Sad day

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:08 am
by Fish
It's a sad day today in my beloved country 40 innocent worshippers killed at prayer time in there mosque by one racist white supremist.
I know with most of you being American that you would be used to something like this but this is a first for sleepy little New Zealand where we all thought nothing like this would happen that we were all above the hate.
So I wish all the families who lost loved ones my condolences.

Re: Sad day

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 12:09 pm
by NSC
I am never used to things like this, and nobody ever should be.

Re: Sad day

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 2:48 pm
by Greymist
Fish wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 7:08 am It's a sad day today in my beloved country 40 innocent worshippers killed at prayer time in there mosque by one racist white supremist.
I know with most of you being American that you would be used to something like this but this is a first for sleepy little New Zealand where we all thought nothing like this would happen that we were all above the hate.
So I wish all the families who lost loved ones my condolences.
I'm feeling the same way (kiwi here), it's losing the image in my heart and mind of New Zealand being this sleepy, idyllic safe haven, that something like this could happen in New Zealand is pretty heart breaking.

It's a weird dissonance, that when things like this happen in London (where I live) and Europe, it seems tragically common place, not hitting me like this, but now it has happened in New Zealand I feel completely different.

As a random statistic. The number of people murdered today in this attack (49) is significantly higher than the total number of people murdered in NZ in all of 2017 (35).

Re: Sad day

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 6:49 pm
by Fish
Just a little update so far the death toll is at 49 but there is still 41 injured so they are expecting it to rise.

Re: Sad day

Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2019 6:31 am
by GBLW
My sympathies to those who were affected!
As a country, we in Canada went through something similar a few years ago in Quebec and I know how it can hit below the belt, because you just don't expect that sort of thing. At least that's how I felt then, but now that it is become more common to see those that believe in white supremacists and other idiotic '-cists, -phobias and -isms' become more common, I find that my tolerance of their rank stupidity is wearing thin.

Unfortunately it seems that while ignorance can be conquered by education, stupidity is relatively permanent, because the stupid refuse to be educated!

Re: Sad day

Posted: Mon Mar 18, 2019 3:12 am
by kd7mvs
I'm not sure I'd say we're used to this type of thing in the US, but the unfortunate truth is that segments of our populations with political influence appear to feel that it's an acceptable price to pay for basically no restrictions upon private ownership of rapid fire weaponry.

They don't put it quite that bluntly, but their actions make it clear that this is so, as none of their suggestions have had any impact upon this phenomenon in out country, and suggestions which I feel might impact it while still allowing for private ownership of limited fire weaponry they oppose without any hesitation whatsoever.

Mind, considering what's happened in certain other countries in regard to anything that might possibly be considered a weapon, all the way down to pocket knives, and the stated opinions of other influential groups in this country, their slippery slope argument isn't entirely invalid; so long as those desiring an absolute ban on anything that could be used as a weapon see any compromise as merely a shifting of ground rather than a final agreement, there's no point in negotiating. Mind, some of them wouldn't negotiate even if there really was a possibility of a permanent agreement short of an outright ban on anything that could cause harm to someone else, so those individuals are cloaking their own intransigence by pointing at the other extreme and blaming them for not being able to shift their stance any.

Which is why I'm PO'd by both extremes.

Meh.

Which all boils down to, yes, in the US, the unfortunate truth is that effectively our behaviour is one of accepting this as a part of our lives. Our words may argue otherwise, but what we've actually done, well, there really isn't any other way of interpreting it.