Source: (Bonnie Jo Mount / Washington Post)
I am an early morning person, and I like mornings. Every morning brings a new joy, new hope, and a new breeze in my life – that’s what I like most of the morning. One fine night I slept free of sorrow and sadness and woke up to see and enjoy the new spirit, zeal, and breeze of the dawn. Unfortunately, I opened my social media and saw the news that terrorists have attacked a Army Public School Peshawar, Pakistan.
This was not a normal attack with which most of the Pakistanis are used to because of the war on terror. This was an attack that took the lives of more than 149 children – the stars and the future of our country. I am not lucky enough to express the feelings that I had at that time. My eyes were teary and unfortunately, I was not able to share my grief with my friends because of the shame and embarrassment that I was having because of not providing protection those the young souls.
The young souls that might not have harmed an insect and they were killed so brutally and were treated like animals are treated in backward societies. They were stopped in classrooms like birds in a cage and were targeted one by one. How cruel is this that they were seeing their friends and classmates which were being killed in front of them and were waiting for their turn – hopeless of life, hopeless of nature, and hopeless of security forces who were supposed to protect their lives.
It was not the assassination of over 149 young stars, but it was the start of the destruction of a bright future for many. Poets and intellects wrote their poems and articles – where the focus was on schools – a place that is not free of terror and an unsafe place. This whole scenario gave birth to many issues that are still prevailing, and I am not sure that even if we work very hard, we won’t be able to get rid of it in a decade. The long-lasting impact on the future of young souls and the feeling that educational institutions are the places of terror and less safe than homes.
With the loss of 149 young souls, the government came in action and devised National Action Plan to curb terrorism and extremism from the roots – which is a nightmare – when we are less focused on creating wisdom than spreading ignorance.
Schools, colleges, and universities used to be the places – full of fun, joy, learning, spreading wisdom, intellects, overcoming ignorance, but unfortunately, that is not the case anymore.
Forget about my country – where we are faced with extreme challenges, but, when in a country like the United States of America, attacks on school happen, then one really loses hopes. If in the worlds safer place young souls can’t feel safe inside their schools, then the results would be quite harmful. A recent attack on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Florida, took the lives of seventeen young souls – the future of the country. Indeed, very bad for the future of the country, and an impact that it will have on these young souls.
So far, approximately 1480 students have lost their lives because of the attacks on their schools in different forms – which is very alarming.
There is a big why that needed to be answered by the key authority holders – because they have the major stake in it. Educational institutions should have spread awareness about humanity, love, interfaith harmony, religious harmony, tolerance for diversity, equality, and respect. We should have focused on giving pearls of wisdom and opportunities to our young souls for their better and positive utilization – rather than spreading hate. Wherever hate prevails – ignorance prevails – and in such cases, wisdom always loses and ignorance won.