In the aftermath of yet another terror attack in Europe, this time in the British city of Manchester, it’s hard to think of anything new to say. Indeed, when I sat down to write this column, I came damn close to plagiarizing myself.
I was going to tell you all about how demoralizing this attack was to me. Children have often been killed in terror attacks, many of which are utterly indiscriminate — you can’t blow up a plane or drive a truck through a crowd while being picky about your victims.
READ MORE: Manchester Arena attack: Two 14-year-old girls, off-duty police officer among latest victims
But Manchester’s suicide bombing still marks (and it’s hard to believe such a thing was even possible) a new low. The audience was full of children. It’s like bombing the circus or a Santa Claus parade.
Again, children dying in these attacks is not new. And in other parts of the world, including across much of the Middle East, especially Syria, it’s depressingly routine. But here in the West, the attack in Manchester feels like a last, slim, almost imperceptible red line being crossed. If they’ll target kids, they’ll do literally anything.
READ MORE: ISIS claimed responsibility for Manchester attack – now what do investigators do?
So that was the column I was going to write up, and I was going to sprinkle in a few personal notes, as writers often do. I was going to mention that I was recently riding around Toronto with my wife and our two kids on the TTC, as we went to see a Blue Jays game. And I was going to tell you that, even though it was a lot of fun and all went smoothly, buried in the back of my mind was a grim realization: I was one madman’s flick of a detonator away from having my entire little family wiped out.
But as I sat down to write that, I had a nagging sense that I’d written something like it before. A quick Google search proved me right: in July of last year, in the National Post, in a similar moment of sadness after a similar kind of atrocity, I had this to say:
READ MORE: Manchester Arena explosion: people react with horror to incident that left 22 dead
“It’s hard to go out in public this summer without remembering the recent spate of mass-casualty attacks in public places. Paris, twice, Brussels, Istanbul, Baghdad, Orlando, Dallas and now Nice. And so many more. It can happen anywhere. Sooner or later, it’ll probably happen everywhere … I took my three-year-old to her first Jays game. My dad came along. It was a lovely family moment. But at every step along the way … I was wary of any sudden moves and any unexpected cries. Public transit, crowded hubs, big sporting events — they’re all prime targets … ”
I hope my editors will indulge me that long quotation (and I promise not to make a habit of recycling my earlier work). But I think my near self-plagiarization here speaks to the reality we face in 2017. There’s no wisdom left to offer. I’ve no new encouraging words to share.
READ MORE: British PM May concerned another attack may be ‘imminent’
Whether it’s writers like me or police officials or mayors or national leaders, the words all sound familiar because they are familiar. Yes, we’re lauding the courage of Mancunians today, and they’ve been exemplary, of course. But forgive me for being tired of it. We’re lauding Manchester for the same courage we’ve already lauded Paris for, and Berlin, and London, and Boston, and Ottawa, and so on. And we’ll all do it again next time, too, wherever and whenever the next damned terror attack strikes.
COMMENTARY: Can finding a solution to terrorism unite us?
If you’re looking for answers, I have nothing fresh to offer. So permit me another indulgent quote from last year’s column: “we shouldn’t kid ourselves … some attacks will always succeed … there’s only so much that can be done — and it will never be enough. Prudent precautions at home. Measured force abroad. And stiff upper lips all around. It’s a decidedly unsatisfying response to atrocities and the grim knowledge that any of us could be next, but anyone peddling some kind of crackdown at home or a war in the Middle East as an ‘answer’ to these massacres is selling snake oil. Our best-case scenario is to enact a series of fairly small policy tweaks that may, over time, reduce the frequency of such attacks.”
READ MORE: Olivia Campbell, missing Ariana Grande concertgoer in Manchester, has died: mom
The answer was unsatisfying then, but I felt it accurate. Today, with hindsight, it’s still unsatisfying, but probably still accurate. We can make incremental progress in this fight, probably, but only by being very, very careful. And in the meantime, we’ll continue to absorb brutal losses.
But absorb them we will. Earlier generations understood that the freedoms we enjoy are not free, and are often horrifically painful to pay for. We may be set to learn that old truth anew in our time. And our only consolation will be the fact that our freedoms are the only thing worth such an excruciating price. Or, as I said a year ago, “go see the fireworks, party at the nightclubs and take your kids to baseball games. It’s not much of a plan for victory, I grant. But in this grim summer of 2016, it’s the best we’ve got. It’ll have to do.”
As summer of 2017 starts, it’ll have to do again.
Matt Gurney is host of The Morning Show on Toronto’s Talk Radio AM640 and a columnist for Global News.
Comments