On Sunday Jan. 30, 1972, 13 unarmed civil rights marchers were shot and killed in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, by British paratroopers. The events of that day are now commonly known as Bloody Sunday.
Over the past three decades, evidence has surfaced to show that the troops fired into the crowd indiscriminately and that they were under orders from their higher officers to do so. It has also been revealed that the British military and government went to great lengths to cover up their part in the massacre.
Last Thursday, I joined with the victims' families and the citizens of the Bogside to commemorate the anniversary of the tragedy that tore through their community 31 years ago. The memories and the pain are still there.
The pain from the physical loss is obvious. It became clear to me that a much greater sense of hurt comes from the dehumanization these people continue to feel at the hands of the British government. After all these years, the crown still will not take responsibility for Bloody Sunday and has shown little, if any, empathy toward the victims and their families.
The victims on that day were working class Catholics living in the Protestant part of Ireland. Great Britain deemed them and the truth about their deaths expendable.
Bloody Sunday is not the only time the common man has been brushed aside by the power of the ruling class. It happens all the time, all over the world.
As the United States moves toward war with Iraq, it must realize Iraq is not the enemy. Saddam Hussein is the one our government has declared too great a risk to leave alone.
Yet, while it is merely one man the United States is after, many others will have to die because of him. The scariest part is, chances are, we will never know their names.
We'll know them as a soldier, villager or collateral damage. They will become numbers to be erased from some chalkboard.
Our leaders will say that loss is a necessary evil of war. The rationale is that the deaths will bring peace for the living.
That pulls me back to Derry.
As I stood huddled around a small monument memorializing the victims of Bloody Sunday, I looked around at what the Bogside has become.
The walls are spray-painted with the letters of the terrorist group, the Irish Republican Army, which saw a great surge of new recruits due to the events of Bloody Sunday. The windows are boarded up or covered with bars. The Bogside is still a war zone.
I could see it in the eyes of the people around me. Decades later, they are still fighting the fight they were fighting back when Bloody Sunday happened.
Hate can only breed hate. Every time we kill in the name of peace, we are defeating our own purpose. When will enough people have died for the killing to stop? When will it ever be enough?
The people the Bogside matter. The people of the United States matter. The people of Iraq matter. No one is expendable.
Write to Cole at cpmcgrath@bsu.edu
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
