Living in Fear….

DAY 19:

I had intended to write about todays topic from the perspective of what its like to live in fear in a daily context, living up to our targets in a job role, making enough money to keep paying the bills, staying on the right side of our neighbours and many more things that we might secretly be living in fear of.

However, something happened a couple of nights ago that brought even more gravity and seriousness to the idea of living in fear…and this is what happened:

Having picked up a bit of shopping from one of my local high street supermarkets, I exited the shop, passing by a dad with his toddler and a younger child in a buggy. Simultaneously I heard very loud shouting coming from down the street. The dad quickly ushered his children into the shop, I imagined this to be a precautionary measure, protecting his children from a potential threat. I exited the store completely now, observing a group of lads further up the high street, some wearing balaclava’s. In the same thirty seconds or so two different teens walked past me shouting inside the shop I had just left. At the time I had thought they were abusing the shop staff. Later that evening I was to find out that they were in fact aggressively gesturing and shouting at the father with the young children. The dismay, shock and disapproval I felt at the time of leaving the scene quickly turned to anger and a seething frustration. I felt I should have done more, made sure of what was actually happening. I had waited outside the shop to see that the two aggressors had left, running up the road to join their gang down a side street but knowing that these three vulnerable people had taken refuge in the office of the local supermarket made me sick. I felt the red mist rising and I wanted to go back in time to make amends. To take action…