Waking up to another terrorist attack in the UK this morning is a shock to the system. Our beautiful country in under attack from people who hate everything we stand for, love, freedom and democracy. In times like this it is hard to feel safe, to feel free and to feel happy.
Do you fight or give in?
Do we fight with what we have, our freedom, and continue with our daily lives? Do we keep our planned engagements and venture into these places and do as we had planned to do, meet friends, see loved ones, create happy memories?
Or do we give in and stay at home?
If we do that they have won haven’t they? They have taken our freedom. If we cancel plans because we are scared then they get what they wanted. You may feel that you are doing that out of love for your children, or your partner, but you have then taken their freedom away.
How we deal with situations like this teaches our children so much about society and by giving in to terrorists we breed more hatred. In times like this you often see anti Muslim and anti immigration social media posts, this is just them winning too, they want us to collapse from within, to distrust the world we live in and the people who are trying to keep us safe. But the Manchester attacks really went against the grain on this. There were more stories about love and support and help than hatred and that warmed my heart. This is what we should be teaching our children.
There is always going to be bad things happening in the world, that is just life. But let’s teach our children that are Great Britain for a reason. We are great at helping people, we are great at loving all walks of life, we are great at carrying on whatever life throws at us. Let’s teach them that we are a United Kingdom for a reason, we are united in our grief, we are united in our fight against terror and we are united in love.
Show them the footage of people running to help, show them the interviews of politicians pledging change, show them how we are carrying on. Hug them a little tighter but send them on their way today, tomorrow, next week to whatever was already planned. Show them that we still have, and intend to keep our love, freedom and democracy and therefore our happiness.
We are the United Kingdom and we are Great Britain.
