Revd Ian Gilmour - St Andrew's & St George's

A visual arts response to the Cumbrian shootings of 2 June 2010.
I am a bellringer at the three Edinburgh churches with bells hung
for change ringing. I spent my childhood in West Cumbria and was
deeply moved by the events of 2 June 2010 in all the places that
used to be home. What happened in West Cumbria on 2 June 2010
was a tragedy on so many levels.
Those of us who are left behind have a responsibility to ensure that
Mr Bird‟s little grandson inherits a better world than that of his
grandfather. We can choose whether to fix man‟s inhumanity to
man whereas we have no choice over natural disasters such as the
recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Not to choose to adjust
our approach to human life to enable the world‟s human population
to really live, to love and to be loved is to completely miss the point
of being alive at all. We
must learn, and teach,
how to love ourselves.
Loving others and the
planet will follow.
The exhibition had its first
showing in Edinburgh
between 28 May and 5
June 2011 and was
extremely well received.
Many of the comments
and responses were deeply moving. The anonymous contributions
to the participatory pieces will form the basis of future work.
Meanwhile, there is still the opportunity to view the work and to
contribute using the website: www.itcouldhavebeenme.co.uk
Susan Brightman is a bellringer at StAStGW
30