I have written before in this space how we cannot let fear take hold of us during this time. It is a momentous time of great changes that, just as a child being born, can produce great fear and pain. Amidst all the glaring headlines about wildfire and flood, politicians at war with each other over cultural differences and saying things we aren’t sure if we can believe or not, we may have missed a headline about another historical occasion. On June 27, two days ago, the queen of England made peace with a long standing former commander of the Irish Republican Army. A man who was responsible for a great deal of violence and death and possibly even the death of the queen’s own cousin Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979. In 2005 the IRA disbanded and gave up the violence. Two years later Martin McGuinness, this once commander of the IRA, became the senior Catholic politician in a new unity government in Ireland. On Wed. June 27, 2012, in a visit to Ireland, Mr McGuinness and Queen Elizabeth shook hands making a show of unity and the continued peaceful search for ways to end conflict.
Amidst all of the changes taking place, some of them not so pleasant, let us not miss this highly symbolic gesture of Unity and Hope. If you wish to know more about this occasion simply google ‘queen shakes hand’. It is a beautiful and hopeful story.
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