THE WITNESS OF HISTORY
Academics, researchers and those who document
history hold the first person account of an event to be of most value. The most
authentic is the first person story. It is truth and factual from a one
person account. Naturally, we all experience, see and live through things
differently.
Apart from us, although there are records
held of television and newsprint reports, they are compiled and written from
the viewpoint of a journalist. Although this is often excellent as far as
historical records are concerned, nothing can beat the story of feelings and
emotions of human observers.
§
During the latter six months of 2014 citizens
of our world have seen, experienced and lived through some horrific events.
These events affect all of mankind in some form or other and because of the
tools we have such as television, radio, computers, mobile phones and
newspapers, these are the tools we use to see, interpret and understand city,
state, national and world events. We often feel drawn to them and
sometimes we may feel much news and happening world events, some good, some not
so good are thrust upon us.
Sometimes we become sick of being bombarded
with news on warfare, terrorism, children being hurt etc and we turn the TV off
or close the newspaper.
However, I feel
we often become hooked on all the broadcasts as we feel driven 'to
know'.
There are some events that I personally need to watch all the
broadcasts.
Consequently, on the odd occasion, I feel I am a bit of a
voyeur and intruding on people’s lives and their privacy.
This can be
exampled in a number of events such as the shooting down of a Malaysian
Airlines Flight MH17 aircraft in the Ukraine (298 lives) and another lost
aircraft MH370 in the South Indian Ocean (226 lives) and the recent loss of Air
Asia QZ850 aircraft in the Sea of Java (162 lives).
These three aircraft
had a total loss of 686 lives.
I felt compelled to watch the news reports,
especially the Ukraine incident because Australia was heavily involved in the
form of international politics and our humanitarian involvement. Many
Australians died and many more were affected.
I was driven, compelled and interested to see
how it all ends, what of the people, who survived and what of the families and
what our leaders were doing to ensure the deceased were respected, brought home
and the perpetrators brought to justice.
None of these events affected me more than
the terrorist siege and holding of hostages at the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place,
Sydney where two innocent people lost their lives.
The siege commenced at the start of the
business day and continued until 2.30am. During those hours I, and a great
number of my fellow Australians, were continually watching the news broadcast
hoping our police would get the hostages out alive. At midnight I had to
go to bed but because I was continually thinking of what the hostages and their
families were going through, I could not sleep. I arose again at 2.45am to
see how things were going.
During the next few days talking with people
and seeing some Sydneysiders and other members of the public being interviewed
by the media, we enmasse were either up all night or grabbing an hours or so
sleep and then going back to the television broadcast again.
Australian outpouring of grief in Sydney's
Martin Place following the Lindt Cafe siege was remarkable. A young couple
placed a small bunch of flowers on the pavement, and then they were accompanied
by another, then another and another. People who did not know the victims
felt compelled to show they care. In a matter of five days, it was estimated
that over 1.5 million people had laid flowers in memory of Tori Johnson and
Katrina Dawson who died at the siege. Many drove or
flew long distances to place flowers at the impromptu memorial to people they
had never previously heard of. International visitors and tourists in Sydney at
the time did the same thing.
This is the URL to a photo of about half to -
three quarters of the flowers.
As Australians, we were all surprised to see how strongly we
stand up together for each other. We do not buckle under pressure, especially terrorism.
About a week following the Lindt Cafe Siege,
a young Aussie cricketer by the name of Phillip Hughes died very shortly after
being hit by a cricket ball during a game. Again, the public outpouring of grief
from Australians was incredible. The public openly grieved for a young man they
had probably never met, rearly seen play and had little knowledge of him. Yet,
many Aussies were placing their cricket bats and caps at the front of their doors, on the fence, of houses, businesses and schools as a memorial to Phil.
§
Like everyone else on our wonderful planet
Earth, I am trying to understand why these things happen, what are those
involved experiencing, will there be any survivors and, how they will and their
loved ones cope. As well, how do we prevent it happening again.
We are all the same. As a part of the
'human condition' we love people, have kind hearts and sympathetic souls and we
like to see people survive their difficulties and troubles.
Seeing the reactions of my fellow Australians
to MH17, the Lindt Cafe Siege and the death of Phil Hughes by a cricket ball, I
have never before seen a public reaction and outpouring of grief as these three
events. I can see that we are becoming a kinder and more caring society.
We have all been the Witness of History
We in this 21st Century are lucky to have
wonderful technology and communications as well as journalists willing to go
into the fray to find the truth and tell the stories and whether we are
physically in place to observe history happening or standing on the sideline,
we all are in some form or other in our lives, witnessing history.
We all live through history and endure.
Verde
