A father comforts his son about the Paris attacks and soothes us in the process
When little Brandon and his father, Angel, were visiting the memorial site outside the Bataclan theater just days after the senseless, tragic, heartbreaking Paris attacks, Brandon was feeling understandably unnerved. When a reporter from Canal+ TV show Le Petit Journal asked Brandon why he thought the attacks happened, and why the terrorists committed such an awful deed, Brandon had a simple answer.
“Yes, because they’re really mean,” he said in French. “Bad guys are not very nice. And we have to be really careful because we have to change houses.”
But at that moment, Angel jumped in to reassure his young son, saying they won’t be moving. “France is our home,” he told Brandon.
Brandon was, understandably, still afraid, responding, “But there’s bad guys, Daddy.”
And then, his father reassured him in a way that simultaneously broke our hearts and gave us faith in humanity. He told his son that there are, “bad guys everywhere.” “They might have guns, but we have flowers,” he said. Of course, Brandon was puzzled by this, but Angel gave him the most beautiful response, explaining how the power of flowers is greater than the power of guns. Brandon felt “much better” after this explanation. And so do we.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb_5QlLQQH8
Related reading:
A 22-year-old woman’s brave first hand account of the Paris attacks
(Image via YouTube)
