to visit Simon’s parents for Easter.
Derry (official name Londonderry) is an interesting place, a walled city, where all the violence started 40 years ago, give or take.
If you ever go, let me know and I’ll hook you up with my father in law, who is an expert in the conflict and will take you to the wall and point out to you the exact spot it all erupted. Okay, well maybe I won’t do that, because I might not actually know you in real life and I’d hate to inflict strangers on him!
Anyway, the real ongoing conflict of the city is what to call it. Londonderry or Derry. London implies, of course, English rule. This pisses some people off. Officially it is Londonderry, but some people are so opposed to the name that one of them actually stopped at all of the signs along the main road to the city and spray painted out the ‘London’. I kid you not.
I don’t really get the random acts of violence decision. I mean, okay if I kill everyone who disagrees with me, eventually everyone will agree with me. It just sounds exhausting to me, to hate other people that much. Why not have a pint and you live your life and I’ll live mine.
Obviously that is very simplified. The causes and consequences of war, any war, even the war on terrorism, are many and varied and intricate.
But why do they have to be?