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OPINION: The news reached Australia on that terrible day a couple of years ago. There has been another mass shooting, a strange one. Because it is not in Texas, Alabama or Idaho, but much closer to home.
Christchurch, of all places!
Christchurch beautiful, always peaceful and picturesque, recently on the news of the terrible earthquakes. Up to a dozen dead in a mosque, they say. No, maybe more, maybe up to 18 dead.
Not yet plusAs the numbers continue and we see the first of the shattering images.
READ MORE:
* Our institutions withstood the test posed by the mosque shooting
* ‘Extremists stand for hatred … we stand for love’: applause as mosque shooter jailed for life
* Six months after the Christchurch terror attack, aroha in Linwood
And now, the most shocking and embarrassing of all.
They say the shooter is a Australian?
Supplied
The reaction in Australia has been one of deep personal pain and unbearable shame, writes Peter FitzSimons.
And from where, you say? From nothing less than the sunny borough of Grafton, on the north coast of New South Wales? It hardly seems credible.
Grafton? Are you sure?
The only thing sunnier than Grafton on a spring day is its sunnier citizenship, and it’s most famous for its annual jacaranda festival, where people flock to be among all that lilac-blooming beauty and dappled light from the trees. of jacaranda trees that line every street.
Is What is the place that produced the Christchurch murderer?
Everything was so horrible.
For years we have read about massacres with firearms in other countries and almost without exception they have been carried out by foreign to foreign. It’s always from another world, somewhere far away Over there, Made by weird psycho bastards raised in violent cultures for victims we don’t know about.
But this, of course, was different. This was one of us, nothing less than a homegrown terrorist, committing horrible acts against our closest and dearest neighbors.
Our entire general reaction since then has been one of deep personal pain and excruciating shame, mixed with great admiration for the way New Zealand has dealt with the tragedy.
joseph johnson / Stuff
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets with members of the Muslim community at the Al-Noor Mosque on April 26 last year.
The way the Kiwis came together after the murders, from Jacinda Ardern with the hijab to the mosque the day after the massacre to his rock solid drive and refusal to pronounce his name – it has been nothing short of inspiring. Other leaders swear vengeance in such circumstances and push for division mixed with sterile flattery about “thoughts and prayers.” Its Prime Minister promoted peace and unity, and lived it with her actions.
But still, in Australia, we keep going back to the killer’s nationality. Ideally, you’d like to think that the gunman was a creation from the deepest and darkest sewers on the internet, a global phenomenon, rather than a specifically Oz creation, but there’s no getting around it – he really is one of us, certainly influenced. by our own deep streak of racism towards Muslims and, ultimately, our responsibility. Which then begs the question, where should the gunman spend the rest of his birth days?
The answer is obvious: here in Australia. In recent years, as I have documented for ABC Correspondent abroad program, our government has taken a tremendously hard line on the Kiwis living here who have broken the law, sending hundreds of dollars a year, while you have sent a dozen Australians back here.
Hence Jacinda Ardern’s comments at her press conference earlier in the year at Kirribilli House, with Scott Morrison at her side.
“He has deported more than 2,000 people,” he said, “and among them there will be real Kiwis who need to know the consequences of their actions. But between [them] they are individuals who are too young to become criminals under our command, they were too young to become members of patched gangs, too young to be organized criminals. We will own our people. We ask that Australia stop exporting theirs. . . “
POOL VIEW
The Christchurch High Court hears that the mosque attacker committed his attacks because he wanted to instill fear in the Muslim community.
Yep. It was a good point.
In this case, the Christchurch murderer formed his criminality in our look, even if he committed his atrocity there. The answer must be to send him back here, and we will imprison him at our expense. When I put a poll on Twitter on Thursday To measure support for this, I received 7,000 responses with 60 percent of Australians in favor. Most importantly, the number of people who support it seems to include our own Prime Minister, who accepts the logic of it.
Rest assured, if we get the Grafton man back, it will be with a cast iron guarantee that his sentence will never be watered down, and he must die in prison. In the face of such a tragedy, such a gruesome act, it is surely the only decent thing we can do, as a nation.
Above all, we are very, very sorry that this tragedy happened, and doubly that it was one of us who did it. And we send love.
Peter FitzSimons is a best-selling author, journalist, and former rugby international who played seven tryouts for the Wallabies.
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