There is much in the world that is bad and The Green Man often chooses to turn away rather than confront the manner in which certain human beings treat other human beings, however there are instances when this is simply not possible.

This is the photo of a mother at the funeral of her two daughters, aged 11 and 12. They were deliberately machine gunned in the back by terrorists in the Russian town of Beslan. They are dressed in their most special frocks for their funeral.

This was no accident. They were not accidently caught in the crossfire. As they fled the school in which they had been held hostage a gunman took them in his sights and cold-bloodedly pulled the trigger on his automatic weapon. Each sustained multiple gun shot wounds to the back and died as a consequence.

What sort of adult human being does that to two innocent school girls?

I am wracked with grief. Amongst all the horrific things in the world this stands out. We are all lessened by sharing our humanity with such barbarism.

We do not know the full details of incident yet but if, as has been suggested, this is the work of Islamic militants then the religion has a lot to answer for. A climate has been created where individuals, in the name of their religion, think it is acceptable to cause the deaths of 350 human beings, many of them children. Nothing justifies the cold blooded slaughter of innocent children. NOTHING!

There is nothing to say or do except grieve.