Suffer the little children...
I remember hearing about a Russian school siege in September of 2004, but I never really knew what happened. Now I do.
I watched a movie this weekend called Children of Beslan. It was a documentary about the children who were held hostage, what they saw, and how they were doing 1 year later. The overall answer? Not good.
Many of these children watched their parents die. Their siblings and friends died right next to them. It was such a horrible hostage situation that lasted 3 days. It ended in a bloody cluster-fuck that ended the lives of 330+ people. The children are no longer young, they have become adults dealing with very real, adult emotions - anger, fear, rage, anxiety, and confusion. Why? Why kill the innocent children? Why in Beslan? There aren't any answers.
One boy wants to become President of the world so he can, "Slit the throats of all terrorists with a knife." One girl drew pictures of the terrorists so she can tear them up and burn them. She says, "It's never enough. I want them to burn more, to die more." One child was so afraid of terrorists coming back that for months he climbed a tower and sat there watching over his home, a toy rifle by his side.
I don't know why this affects me so. I don't particularly care about children. Perhaps it's not knowing the exact horror these children faced but knowing it was something beyond my worst nightmares. Maybe it is the courage these kids show at such a tender age. They can smile again, joke again. They play as if they don't have a care in the world. It's tragically amazing.
I watched a movie this weekend called Children of Beslan. It was a documentary about the children who were held hostage, what they saw, and how they were doing 1 year later. The overall answer? Not good.
Many of these children watched their parents die. Their siblings and friends died right next to them. It was such a horrible hostage situation that lasted 3 days. It ended in a bloody cluster-fuck that ended the lives of 330+ people. The children are no longer young, they have become adults dealing with very real, adult emotions - anger, fear, rage, anxiety, and confusion. Why? Why kill the innocent children? Why in Beslan? There aren't any answers.
One boy wants to become President of the world so he can, "Slit the throats of all terrorists with a knife." One girl drew pictures of the terrorists so she can tear them up and burn them. She says, "It's never enough. I want them to burn more, to die more." One child was so afraid of terrorists coming back that for months he climbed a tower and sat there watching over his home, a toy rifle by his side.
I don't know why this affects me so. I don't particularly care about children. Perhaps it's not knowing the exact horror these children faced but knowing it was something beyond my worst nightmares. Maybe it is the courage these kids show at such a tender age. They can smile again, joke again. They play as if they don't have a care in the world. It's tragically amazing.
posted by Barbarian02003 | Monday, September 18, 2006
2 Comments:
I read the article and that is unbelievable. There was a picture there of a young man running with an infant that had been injured in his arms. All I kept thinking was "that looks so much like my little man". I can't even imagine watching my kids get murdered or what would go through their heads if they had to watch me get killed. It is an awful reality that our society shouldn't be capable of but somehow it is.
All those little kids were half-naked, it got so hot in the school that they took their clothes off. The innocense of that mixed with the blood and death around them was just heartbreaking.
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