If there's anything good to come from tragedy, it should be unity; not hatred, not violence and especially not intolerance of others. Senseless violence is not an appropriate response when you find the community you are a part of is faced with such a reality.

People are angry, undoubtedly, and I would argue that anger is the least that people should feel after the violent and deadly murder of innocent children in Southport this week. But that anger shouldn't drive you to mindlessly destroy property, attack others and rise up against an enemy that doesn't exist; it should be the moment you to pull together and find common ground, to strengthen community and work together to tell a story of resilience, courage, and change for good.

I sincerely doubt that any of the thugs at the EDL responsible for the escalated violence in what was supposed to be a moment of peace are parents of the victims, and instead are just using a community on edge to incite hatred in order to further their own twisted agenda.

In all the conversations I've been a part of with our community leaders at Apple, I've discovered that even though the unifying characteristic of each of those groups may be different, the challenges that each of them face are almost identical. And so, it's in everyone's best interests to work together to drive the change that matters; better to have 10,000 unified voices, than 10 groups of 1000 people asking for the same thing in a slightly different way.

One of my favourite examples of this in action is the Leap Manifesto, with Naomi Klein as one of the key contributors to this document. It's a really brilliant example of what can be achieved when thought leaders from diverse backgrounds come together, and it's something we should really adopt and practice much more often. The world now seems so incredibly complex, and the problems we face cannot be solved individually, or in silo with likeminded others. Now that's not to say we're ever going to agree on everything, it's how we make progress and move forward; but we can absolutely find common ground, and that's where we need to start.

Of course, the people who are most influential at a moment like this are those that are impacted the most by the loss, and the almost unimaginable pain that comes as a result. Naturally it'll feel easier to want no part in anything that may come as a result of this... but it's these people that can change the course of history. Whether they want to or not is another question, but the silence will be just as loud as any words, if any, that they chose to share.

Compassion, empathy and especially forgiveness are incredibly difficult things to practice, but if they can find it within them to convert the pain into something positive, then there is hope for the rest of the community around them.

All it takes is just one person to speak up first. If you find in this moment that it's you, what would you choose?

Know that whatever you decide, history will remember you, but how you're remembered is entirely up to you.

Let Love Win.