COMMENT:
New Zealanders should be proud of themselves. While a sense of deep sorrow pervades the country, we've risen above lashing out at the perpetrator or where he's from, although the fact he's not one of us helps.
The procession leading into the first Parliamentary prayer since the Christchurch massacre
was a masterstroke by Speaker Trevor Mallard.
He invited several denominations to take part in what is a sacrosanct procession into the debating chamber. Parliament has never heard the likes of it before, the prayer being led by a Muslim imam in a haunting chant preaching forgiveness.
Jacinda Ardern gave a stirring tribute, praising as heroes the two country cops who forced the car of the gunman, still shooting, into a fence and dragged him out. Ardern rightly said he sought many things from his act of terror but one was notoriety and that's why she says you'll never hear her use his name. He's a terrorist, a criminal and an extremist. She implored us to speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the name of the man who took them.
