Letter: Public servants dealing with evil deserve appreciation after week of rioting
A letter from (Very Rev Dr) Norman Hamilton OBE:
Maybe I have missed something - perhaps quite a lot - but I have read and heard very few words of appreciation for the public servants who almost literally are having to pick up the pieces of lives shattered in the recent riots across the province.
More than 60 PSNI officers have been injured, but society and political leaders seem to largely ignore them.
This is hardly surprising since support for the PSNI is largely missing from the NI Executive's Programme for Government which, ironically, is entitled 'Doing what matters most'.
Then there are the fire service personnel dealing with blazes in property and on the streets; ambulance crews helping on the spot and taking people to hospital; teachers with traumatised pupils in their classes; social workers and local council personnel stretched almost beyond breaking point to help so many in need of so much.
These and other public servants are the neighbours living next door; members of ordinary families; tax payers and citizens.
Once again they are being called on to deal with great evil in our midst.
The very least we can do is to both publicly and personally appreciate them, as well as properly value what they do in this still deeply troubled and polarised society.
(Very Rev Dr) Norman Hamilton OBE, Ballymena