‘Some people don’t deserve compassion’
I am sorry but I have to disagree
Anyone in the grip of evil
Needs every help if they are to be free
I appreciate the horror and revulsion
I feel it too – monstrous enormity
Too horrible for words some folk’s compulsion
For cruelty, heartless brutality
But write-offs are not a gospel factor
We cannot leave some folk to rot in hell
No matter what we feel we have to deal with real
And real is the story that they tell
A psychiatrist psychotherapist at Broadmoor
Writes a book to help us understand
The people the stories she encounters
Of those that we dismiss out of hand
And yesterday I heard another story
About the Muslim man released who killed
He believed he had the right to mete out slaughter
To a nation that rained bombs in foreign fields
It is not a question of making some excuses
And partial understanding of a foe
It’s the hearing of the story
The other person’s story
When you hear it then I think you’ll know
The terror now visited on our country
Is for terror that we visited on them
And the bombs that blasted Saddam from his palace
Return to haunt our peaceful denizen
Whose side you on? I’m not on any side
Taking sides is the way to war
We have to hear the story
The whole unvarnished story
And learn once again how to care
Brian Fahy
29 May 2021
+ The Devil You Know by Dr Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne relates her work in Broadmoor prison.
+ A Radio 4 interview yesterday spoke about how you cannot de-radicalise terrorists when they believe that their cause is right. It is not therapy they need but open political engagement. Dialogue is needed then to lead participants to a mutual understanding. BF.
Erris Poetry 