trist dag

Possibly not so much attention should be directed to the fact that this duo of lifesavers is a married lesbian couple (I suppose headlines focus on such quirks of heroism--like grandmother saves football player from burning building), but the rescue efforts of this pair, who saved forty youth from drowning during the shooting rampage on Utøya, are commendable and touching. The Massacre in Norway is too raw, frightening and disturbed to properly address, and maybe the only way one can approach such a situation is by recognizing help and heroics, neither because nor despite of who people are. Their story and the accounts of survivors strike me too now because of conservative factions in the Germany government refusing to entertain, at the same time these incidents occurred, debate on married equality. Proponents demurred, conceding that change cannot be forced, but in light of this rescue and heroines and in light of the xenophobia and stereotypes that propagated these attacks in the first place, one should take away the lesson that respect and tolerance are the stuff of civility and prosperity.