Tears For My Fellow Professionals

As someone who spends his life in the classroom, I can’t begin to imagine what was going through the minds of these “people” and why they could even contemplate doing what they did.


“September 27, 2005

The London Times

Gunmen dressed as police kill five Shia teachers in classroom From Anthony Loyd in Baghdad

GUNMEN in police uniforms shot dead five Shia teachers at a primary school south of Baghdad yesterday.

The killers waited until pupils and teachers were leaving the school in Meulha, a village near the town of Iskandariyah, at the end of the day and seized them from a minibus.

The five male teachers and minibus driver were then taken to a classroom, lined up against the wall and shot. “These men were terrorists in uniform,” an Iraqi police spokesman said.

Iskandariyah, 30 miles from the Iraqi capital, is a predominantly Sunni town in an area that has become known as the triangle of death because of the sectarian killings there.

Violence between the three principal Iraqi communities is intensifying in the run-up to the referendum on the draft constitution on October 15….”

Forget the politics. These were teachers. TEACHERS for G-d’s sake - individuals whose lives are dedicated to giving young people the basic skills the need to read, write, socialise and get somewhere – anywhere in life.

I sometimes wake up and wonder why some “people” were created in the first place. What is the point of their very existence, if is to carry out such a indescribable act of slaughter and leave so many others bereft of their presence and talents?

It is very depressing indeed.