It’s not often that items in the “Press” move me to tears or make me shout for joy, but there were two items in today’s edition that provoked those reactions.
The first on page two was the victim impact statements of the parents of Jane Young who was killed in last year’s Edgeware Road tragedy. Seldom have I read such heart-rending compelling words. I would have put a link, but they don’t seem to be on the “Press” website, presumably because they were not written by reporters. A friend suggested that it was prurient of the “Press” to print them but I strongly disagree. No-one reading of the incredible grief these two have experienced could fail to be moved, or treat their stories with less than respect.
One outcome of the tragedy is that the parents no longer live together. Her father talks of surviving on grim stoicism and anti-depressants. He worries all the time about his wife and sons because who can be sure that another person won’t kill one or more of them? One son has left the country to avoid the place where he is known as the murder victim’s brother.
Jane’s mother talks of the agony of being forbidden to touch her daughter’s body because she was a homicide victim, and how the man responsible not only killed her daughter, he broke the mother’s heart, crushed her soul and extinguished her spirit.
These impact statements shock with their raw emotion, and leave an impression that far outweighs any of the articles about crime which the “Press” has recently been featuring. While I can barely imagine what these parents are going through I do take comfort in the fact that my work is focussed on building supportive communities, perhaps the only effective way that we can hope to reduce crime.
It was a relief to read on page five the report of the valedictory speech of Green M.P. Nandor Tanczos. Nandor would not have had a third parliamentary term if it hadn’t been for the premature death of Rod Donald, and serving these last three years has meant sacrificing time he might rather have chosen to spend with his infant child. Nandor spoke of how many politicians who entered Parliament with the best of intentions often lost their principles. He said Parliament ran on unnatural rhythms that did not take account of the living and breathing world. “When I look at the state of our rivers, and our people, and our lives, I don’t need a watch to tell me what time it is.” Saying this, he took out a hammer and smashed a pocket watch to pieces, earning a standing ovation. “After nine years it’s time to cleanse my soul” he said - and I whooped with delight at his honesty and real-ness.
“Two stories touched me deep today
Each honest in a different way.”