WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE

In Belfast on 10th August 1976 a terrorist, trying to escape pursuers, lost control of his car and plowed into a woman and three children. All of the children were killed. A woman living nearby heard the impact and when she saw the carnage vowed that this slaughter of innocents had to stop. Enough was enough

She went knocking on doors begging and pleading with people to put an end to this violence once and for all. Her appeal found a ready response. More and more people rallied to her call. One of the first to do so was an aunt of the three children.

These two women went on to form the Northern Ireland Peace Movement and in 1976 they received a Nobel Peace Prize. http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1976/press.html

Their names are Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan but unfotunately in the ensuing years they were discredited http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4781091.stm .

I mention all this for three reasons.

1. Here we are, 32 years later, still listening to news of two soldiers killed and four injured in a cowardly attack in Northern Ireland last night.

2. A new political party has been formed http://www.newparty.co.uk/policy/ for the express porpose of shining a light into the murky world of British politics. How long will it be before the founders of this party are also discredited and personally vilified? This is a British sickness that has to stop.

3. Watching Peter Mandelson on the Andrew Marr show this morning smuggly reassuring us all that the British Government will resolve the global crisis and ensure that the international banking system is made more transparent makes me dispair.

Whenever will we learn. http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/flowers-gone.shtml