The other day a man tried to push three people under a train in Frankfurt, Germany. One, an eight year old child was run down by the train and killed. Another, the child's mother was able to get herself into the space between the lines and was thus saved, the third a 78 year old woman fell on the platform edge and injured her shoulder and was thus saved.
But that's not why words almost fail me.
Words almost fail me because nobody tried to stop the man according to all the reports I have read.
And words almost fail me because a photo shows the man running along the platform and not one person in pursuit.
No hue and cry. No posse. No lynch mob. Only the grey concrete length.
The far end of the station.
An emasculated Herrenvolk. The only words I can think of.
And now the platform is a sea of colorful candles and flowers. A cheap memorial to a life snuffed out.
Perhaps that's the best they can do.
It wouldn't surprise me.
I have always thought that flowers solve nothing - this photograph more or less sums it up.
ReplyDeleteAnd cheap bouquets of plastic flowers solve maybe even less than nothing Pat.
DeleteStuff the thoughts and prayers, people. Gwil is properly horrified, as are we.
ReplyDeleteThoughts, prayers and flowers? People toss away their freedoms equally lightly when they fail to act.
DeleteA 90 year old man was saved by a young man in London, same thing. We do tackle these criminals in Britain.
ReplyDeleteIn Austria there was a case reported 2 weeks ago where a complete stranger, a man from Kosovo, pushed a woman under an express train. She had no chance. The person who tackled and held the attacker down until police arrived was an Iraqi man. There seems to be almost an epidemic of pushing people under trains at the moment.
DeleteMy (respectable, grownup and well-dressed) daughter fainted on an airless London underground platform and absolutely no-one came to her assistance. Very chilling. I'm assuming people thought that she was drunk or drugged. Either that or they've forgotten how to relate to humans actually in the flesh!
ReplyDeleteIt's very sad. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
DeleteIts a sad world when things like you mention happen. Thanks for sharing Gwil.
ReplyDeleteSadly all too often these days.
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