On Wednesday 22nd March, a terrorist drove down
the pavement of Westminster Bridge, crashed his car and then ran into the Palace of Westminster.
He killed four people, including a policeman.
The media was full of the story. 24 hour news coverage meant
it was never off our screens. Many of the comments after the attack were angry.
Some were more measured. Some sounded statesmanlike, especially from Andrew Neil.
One of the things Andrew Neil said was that terrorism would
never prevail, because there were thousands upon thousands of Keith Palmer’s
(the policeman killed) in our country.
I did a bit of research, and within minutes, I had found
them. I could fill this page with them. People who, on March 22nd
2017 were serving our nation, helping our children, promoting good, and in the
over-used phrase of mugs and t-shirts, ‘carrying on’.
There’s the fun day at Ashton for the Community Family
Support Programme. On the same day, the ‘Eggstravaganza’ day at Honiton for early
years children. The Hospice of St Francis was given £5,500 by a firm of
lawyers, the proceeds of a quiz night, on that day.
On that day, 22nd March, The Luton and Dunstable
District Netball League were in action. On the same day, there was a lecture at
Bangor University on the use of technology to help with less resourced
languages.
There was even a decision to change our text books in terms
of what it says about dinosaurs because of new finds, announced in the science
journal ‘Nature’ on that day.
None of these made the headlines. But each underlines goodness,
a willingness to give, a willingness to explore, investigate, develop and
promote good in the world we live in. Above all, it shows would be terrorists
that we live in a society that works well and that will continue to ‘carry on’.
There are indeed thousands upon thousands of Keith Palmer’s in our nation. And to
every one of them – thank you.
