Bombs went off in London yesterday. People, going about their everyday business, trying to get to work or see the city, having finished taking their children to school died and were injured. Ex-collegues who work in that area were thankfully spared. People who work for my present company were streets away from it when it all happened.
Today, in the office, it is like it never happened. Life has returned to normal quickly. All of the people I work with here live closer to this than Sally and I do - some even have family in the area and life goes on for them. There was a sense not so much of shock but more of inevitability.
I have seen some things on people's blogs (and I am looking at YOU Frank J, whoever left that comment at Sarah K's, Beth in Kansas) that make my blood boil. What do you know of terrorism? Of how we here have had to live with it since the 1920's (stand up Michael Collins) and how we learned to live with it. You know nothing of this. Don't any of you dare quote 9/11 at me - we have lost far more over a longer period of time and we are a TINY nation - everything that happens has a deep impact on us because even driving we are no more than a few hours from anywhere else. In Manchester, Birmingham, London, all over Northen Ireland, in Germany, on Gibraltar we have been constant targets. You all live far, far away from New York (I even lived closer to New York than most of you when I was in the US and had friends working a few blocks away when that happened).
How dare you assume that we are going to start blaming Bush, or that the words of a few, idiotic Islamic minorities represents the entire of the UK populations view on things. We are so used to paying the price for our freedom it has ceased to affect us in the way it affected you. Remember who are your allies before you start to complain - we voluntarily joined the war on terror of our own free will. Think of the reaction of your president after 9/11 and that of our prime minster Tony Blair and how smoothly our emergency services dealt with everything. We were prepared for this. We always have been.
So those of you who supported "The Cause" and supplied money to kill my friends and relatives, my wife's friends and relatives, my family's friends and relatives take note; it is still terrorism in whatever form you want to see it. We have had decades to prepare for this - right now we do not need the finger pointing and the self-righteous indignation that a minority may blame your president or the war on terror. We need support, time to heal and get over the shock, and then to get on with what we do best - living our lives without fear
Posted by AlexC at July 8, 2005 01:48 PMI'm glad you and your family were not physically hurt by any of the bombings. I can see your point about the attacks. As others have stated better then I, bombing Londoners is not an effective way of detering them.
Posted by: Contagion at July 8, 2005 01:56 PMYou say it well Alex.
Posted by: vw bug at July 8, 2005 02:50 PMAmen, Alex.
Posted by: Graumagus at July 8, 2005 05:49 PMHow very eloquently stated... better than the string of profanity I'd have used to express the same point.. : ) I admire your strength... I hope the rest of the confused & self-righteous citizens of this country one day soon realize that 2 wrongs don't make a right; that only God-(whomever that may be) is the only one fit to judge; and that hatred which fuels a "war on-" anything, whether terrorists or innocent civilians- is no more noble than the hatred of cowards who blow up subways and buildings..
Posted by: Rachel at July 12, 2005 11:55 AM