Jack Averty: Tales of heroics and kindness matter in face of atrocities

As alien as it may sound, in a week that has seen calls for genocide and the continued disparaging of Muslims, the world has found an unlikely source of reason.

Yes, the man who wants to build a wall between the US and Mexico, and is about as honest as the Artful Dodger, has spoken sense for the first time this century.

For those who missed it – in what has been a week of raw emotion and heartache – President Trump referred to the Manchester suicide bomber and those in IS, which claimed responsibility for Monday night’s attack, as ‘losers’.

His rationale? They would like to be called monsters and he wasn’t going to give them that satisfaction.

He said: “So many young beautiful, innocent people living and enjoying their lives murdered by evil losers in life.

“I won’t call them monsters because they would like that term. They would think that’s a great name. I will call them, from now on, ‘losers’, because that’s what they are. They are losers. And we will have more of them. But they are losers, just remember that.”

Satisfaction

He has a point – why give the terrorists the satisfaction of letting them know how much damage they’ve caused? Why let them know when they bother us?

For once, Trump has made sense. Is there a more childish and petty insult than being branded a ‘loser’?

Not a monster, or evil, or a terrorist – a loser. You can almost picture it – when the losers switch on the 10 o’clock news, waiting to see the emotion and grief over their latest horror and all they’re met with is a stoic Huw Edwards making an ‘L’ sign on his forehead, as 10-year-olds do in the playground.

Trump’s argument of not calling them what they want to be called could be taken further – should we even acknowledge the losers at all?

Several newspapers have led with pictures and the name of the attacker, but isn’t that what he would have wanted? Recognition for the sick and twisted act he carried out?

Meanwhile, what do we know about the 22 victims? We have their names but only know brief snippets of information about them all.

We know of 18-year-old Georgina Callander, an Ariana Grande super-fan and the first victim named, and of 28-year-old Martyn Hett, who took to Twitter last year to help his mum sell her knitting products after she set up a craft stall and no-one would buy anything.

Eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos was named as the youngest of the victims, and 15-year-old Olivia Campbell’s mum gave a moving tribute at a vigil in Bury on Wednesday night.

These are the heroes and these are the stories we should be hearing. Do we really care what school the attacker went to? Are we not more interested in hearing the stories of the people who lost their lives or the heroes who went out of their way to save lives?

The best stories this week have been about Manchester and its people pulling together in the face of terror.

Neighbours of the attacker spoke out this week, saying he was ‘abrasive’ – we could spend our time reading rubbish like this from people claiming ‘I told you so’ when they had no idea, or we could read about people such as Steve, a homeless man who rushed to the aid of victims when he heard the bomb go off.

The attacker apparently liked to wear ‘traditional Islamic clothing’, while that may be so, did you know Steve helped to remove metal from a girl’s face and now has been offered a home for six months after his heroics were heard of on Twitter?

And how about this – the attacker’s brother was born in Westminster, another fact shared across news sources and social media, but wouldn’t we rather be hearing about Kelly Brewster, one of the victims who shielded her niece from the blast and probably saved her life?

The only positive to come out of these atrocities is hearing the stories of true heroism and bravery.

Journalists, of course, have a moral responsibility here, but an equal share of responsibility lies on the shoulders of readers.

If people simply ignored the speculation and the bile thrown out into the public domain, it may surprise many just how quickly it would disappear. If we all stopped clicking and commenting on articles chucked up by hate-mongerers how long would they have a platform to spread their bile from? If people chose to read the stories about the heroes of the atrocity then news organisations would be forced to act. Why would they keep publishing the bile if no one is reading it?

If you’re not sure which story you would rather read, speculation about the attacker or the heroics of Steve and the victims, then go back through this week’s news reports and see which one stokes more emotion. Then, when you are in tears listening to the tales of how parents desperately searched for their kids not knowing if they were dead or alive, you will have your answer.

Unfortunately there is no answer to the horrors we face in the modern world but, at the very least, we can follow Donald’s advice and remember: “They are losers.”