5.30pm Monday night.
While on my way to the premier of ‘More4Me’ in Perth city, I was stopped at the train station by 4 police officers.
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| thanks to freefotouk |
“You can’t go in there. The city’s been closed off” glared the young cop, his eyes showing he meant business.
“But I’ve got a ticket?” I pleaded in a surprisingly small voice.
The faces around me mirrored back my own shock, as we all simply stood in place, like kids in the middle of a game of statues. Eventually someone broke the silence explaining that there’d been a bomb threat and the city was in lock down. Surely not this is Perth!
“You’re welcome to stay around and see what changes, but we can’t let you in there,” the police acquiesced.
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| Avon River Christchurch thanks to martinluff |
For the next fifteen minutes I stood pondering. My eyes drifted between the oversize clock and the strangers milling around me. A sea of nationalities and socioeconomic groups, all experiencing the same uncertainty – what to do? Being a fairly creative type it was easy for my mind to conjure up potential scenarios, a task made even easier after September 11.
5.45pm
“You must be kidding”, I laughed to myself as the absurdity of my thoughts hit me. I’d actually been contemplating choosing a movie premier over injury or possible death, how ridiculous. And what if I had been allowed into Piccadilly Theatre? Could I really sit watching the movie knowing that at any moment the building could come down around me? I turned, retrieved my car and joined the rest of the exiting mass.
7.30pm
News came that the city had been reopened and the detonated package was simply a hoax.
5.30pm Tuesday
Turning on the television I was confronted with the images of Christchurch, the city I grew up in. The images instantly triggered thoughts from the previous 24 hours. Memories of confusion, disbelief and utter helplessness swirled around in my head. I, however, had been able to simply turn and walk away from the situation. I was left with two thoughts:
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Watching the images, my mind simply cannot comprehend what the people of Christchurch are going through. Nor the emergency workers asked to enter a crumbling building, truly inspirational.
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Why is it that when our world is tipped off its axis, be it a large or small shift, we can easily speak to strangers and pull together to help each other, and yet without this catalyst we simply go about doing our very best to totally ignore each other?
