After a tragic week, nature blazes

A week ago a tragic act of violence shook Finland to its foundations. It was made even more disastrous because it was the second of its kind within ten months. In both instances, the atrocities were carried out by young, alienated males, with handguns, whose primary contact to the world was the Internet.

There's been so many questions on how we Finns bring up our kids, and what kind of people we really want them to grow up to be. There is no single answer that would solve everything but we hope our leaders and decisionmakers will wake up to the fact that what we do need are policies that support caring, tolerance, social skills, openness and creativity instead of the current forces of greed, self-gain and alienation.

Needless to say, we also strongly question the reasons why any civilian would ever need to carry a firearm.

All we can do, as parents, families and individuals, is carry on and do our honest ten cents worth to give love strength and alleviate suffering. Given the hard edge of our times it may sometimes be a tough call. But we have no other option, and neither should we.

And oh my: what wonderful colors we have had through these sad and confusing days. We spent the last weekend with friends, about a 120 north of Helsinki, where we enjoyed the season's quite possibly last outdoor games of soccer and badminton, and where the autumnal nature really showed her best. If we city dwellers had any chance of actually surviving in the countryside, we could move out there. Now there's a surprising thought...

Peace.