45: Bloody Sunday

45 years ago (January 30, 1972) the British Military (the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment) murdered 14 innocent people (five of the victims were 17 years old) and wounded 14 others in Derry (known to the British as Londonderry) Northern Ireland. For 38 years the British Government in London, the Protestant-led Government in Belfast and the British Military covered-up the massacre – known as Bloody Sunday. In June 2010, British Prime Minister Cameron officially recognized the massacre and the cover-up – I was in Northern Ireland at the time he did that (the picture is from Derry/Londonderry at the site of the Bogside Massacre/Bloody Sunday.) In the 7 years since acknowledging the murders nothing has happened to anyone involved in the massacre or the decades-long cover-up. The soldiers involved in the massacre continue to hold their decorations and awards (including the then Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford who received the Order of the British Empire in 1972 by Queen Elizabeth II for his actions on Bloody Sunday.) Actions speak louder than words and while the British finally used words in admitting their crime 38 years after the fact they have yet to use actions 7 years later to show their remorse for their crime.