The horrible event in Manchester has brought terror to the forefront of everyone’s thoughts. My newsfeed is being flooded with calls for “us” to “deal with” the “religion of peace” (the latter quotations always used disparagingly). This particular meme has floated by several times:

Just for perspective, during this exact same time period, there have been this many mass shooting attacks in the USA (more than four injured or killed): 

That is 850 mass shootings at the time of writing this post. By the time I hit “publish” there will be at least one more. 

None of this is OK. We can’t pray away these problems and differences. It’s not Islam. It’s not Christians. It’s the whole system. 

I normally post a picture on Facebook of my grandfather, Peter Griffin, receiving the Military Cross on this day. I’m not going to this year. We all have heroes in our families that have done unbelievable and unimaginable things for us, in a time when there were few options for resolving conflict other than sending hordes of young men to launch themselves from a plane into the blackness with the intention of killing everything in their path once they reach the ground. I know that every single one of us are thankful for what they did and remember their bravery and sacrifice on this day.

I think we can do better. There has been so much talk of the appropriateness of Christmas decorations being displayed before the 11th of the month, red coffee cups and why the reindeers have been removed, and whether you can verbally express your favourite holiday greeting or not.

There has also been, in my opinion, way too much talk on how to keep 25,000 displaced people out of our country and not enough talk on how to help. These are people fleeing a war torn region looking for help and compassion. People fleeing a hellscape that looks exactly like where your grandfathers gave up their lives for what was right.

If you want to honour the vets, stop worrying about Christmas decorations and coffee cups and start fighting for what they were fighting for. There are displaced people all over the world that need our help and not our judgement.

I for one know that my grandfather would want me to listen, help and sacrifice instead of smugly judging in fear and shutting the door in their faces.

Lest we forget.