It has been a strange sort of week for Liverpool, hasn't it, between the highs of our 800th birthday celebrations and the desperate lows of the deeply shocking murder of young Rhys Jones.
As a newspaper, we have faced quite a balancing act in terms of wanting to seize the opportunity for celebration of a historic day for the city, while trying to adequately reflect the sense of bewilderment and outrage generated by the shooting of an innocent 11 years-old boy.

Liverpool seems to be dealt a cruel hand by fate sometimes. Those of us who live and work here know all about what a great city region we live in, the progress we are making and the quality of life it is possible to enjoy here.
Yet whenever the opportunity comes along to celebrate those positives, something as damaging to the image of the city as this murder seems to come along. It is a heartbreaking incident, and of course quite unrepresentative of what life in Liverpool is really like for most of us.
My life as a journalist has taken me into some fairly rough situations over the years, but I have never seen a gun fired in anger here, and thankfully I think that goes for pretty well all of us. But despite the fact that gun crime is much worse in some other British cities, the appalling nature of this crime creates a disproportionate impression in the national psyche of a lawless, dangerous place.
The only real positive to come out of it has been the way the Merseyside community has responded to it. The way people here come together at times like this is extraordinary, and reminds us all of the sense of community that is still so strong here.
A prior engagement watching the city's spectacular birthday firework display on the Mersey meant I missed Tuesday night's extraordinary scenes at Anfield, when Rhys's family were so movingly saluted by the Liverpool fans as Everton's "Z Cars" anthem Johnny Todd was played before "You'll Never Walk Alone". By all accounts, though, it was extraordinary.
It would be nice to think that it was a moment that might herald a return to the more friendly spirit of rivalry that used to prevail between fans of the two clubs. If so, it would certainly be a fitting, lasting and entirely appropriate memorial to a football-mad youngster.

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit