To the editor:
Tragedies get the front page because bad news sells papers. Small acts of kindness often go unreported, or are tucked away on the inside. The morning after the Quebec mosque shootings, a man set a bouquet of flowers beside the front door of the Vernon mosque and quietly left. Later, a couple arrived with another bouquet. The lady slipped inside, the door now being unlocked, and quickly reappeared. As she and her partner were heading for their car, a mosque elder, who had arrived several minutes earlier, hurried out of the door to thank them. For more than 10 minutes, the elder Muslim stood on the concrete steps in his bare feet, talking with that sympathetic couple.
Were these acts of kindness appreciated? Standing barefooted, indifferent to the freezing cold concrete, says it all. The thoughts behind these two floral gifts is certain to help the local Islamic congregation deal with the pain and anxiety created by that irrational, cruel and cowardly event in Ottawa.
Lloyd Atkins, Vernon