Tragedy, Sadness & Compassion

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There is much tragedy and sadness in this morning’s papers.

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murdering her two children under five years of age. A father has been jailed for twelve years for killing his eight year-old son and two teenage stepchildren in an arson attack. These are not the first of these sort of stories.

What induces anyone to take the lives of innocent children is beyond comprehension. All one can say is that their minds must have been so powerfully and terribly overtaken by emotion that all rationality ceased to exist.

One thing is for certain and that is they, as well as their families, will live for ever with the terrible memories of what was done. All deserve our compassion.
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At Least We Have Compassion

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Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber who has terminal prostate cancer, has been returned to Libya after being freed from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

Jailed in 2001 for his part in the atrocity which killed 270 lives in 1988, al-Megrahi is said to have only three months to live, and his release has created a storm of protest even though there are many who believe that he was only the scapegoat for the bombing of the Pan-Am jet.

Commonsense prevailed when Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill pointed out that, while no compassion was shown by al-Megrahi to those on board the flight, that alone was not a reason to deny it to him and his family in his final days.

But what a shame that compassion for this man was met with his triumphant return to Libya!
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