London
Only a brief post to let you know I'm fine, as well as my flat-mates (and thanks to Eru family left the day before yesterday!).
If you wonder what I'm speaking about: this morning, London has been hit by terrorism; Gov speaks of, at least, six blasts on the underground network and a double-decker bus.
I'm really grateful you let us know you are well and safe. The last news I heard--and being American in origin, I do not know if it is accurate--is that there were 4 bombs that went off and two others that did not.
Thank God those two others did not!
We pray for everyone killed, hurt, frightened, and waiting to hear from loved ones. Nolen, hug!
Yep, we're ok and, as far as I know, no friend or colleague was harmed either, nor their families (our cable got messed, though, and our nerves, along with our valium stock, and today I feel sooo sleepy! :P)
There were four attacks, and it seems they used the same system that in Madrid's Railway Station: rucksacks with explosives. Yet, it seems that in some places (they say, but they are investigating, still), there were several rucksacks, going by the damages and the number of casualties.
They are, still, searching for corpses at Russell Square's tube train, and they trust the dead would not be more than 100 (55 for now, last I heard, plus 700 injuries and 22 in intensive care, gravely injured).
*sighs and is speechless to tell how he feels about*
Re: London
I am still speechless. Thank heavens, I have been able to contact all my friends over there, and I am glad your family is alright, Nolen.
Just to think about how... random.. timing and everything is..
Re: London
Randomness...no warning...how suddenly the whole world can change--I was 28 when I was smacked in the face by this, and I admit it gave me a lot of trouble dealing with it, figuring how to not be frightened all the time.
There was this grocery store chain that always had this one spokeswoman, and I had seen her for probably 10 years! New commercials every week, and she seemed like a genuinely nice lady. I lived in Seattle at the time...
Well, one day I turned on the news and it was top story how this woman had been walking across this bridge near where I lived, and was just enjoying time with her husband and family, and admiring the view of the waterway (which was quite beautiful! I used to love to look at it!). But fate swung her lead pipe, or in this case, wooden beam, which shifted on this truck behind her, and it came around and hit her in the head. She died before she ever hit the ground, and never even saw what hit and killed her. All because a bungee cord had broken, and the beam swung...
I really had a hard time dealing with this, because it made it seem like we could be having a terrible day or a great day, and if some small thing happened, it could suddenly put us at the pearly gates. I felt so frightened because nothing felt safe, even just enjoying a view, or eating in a restaurant before the crazy man comes in shooting...
The hardest thing for me to deal with is the terror people might feel just before they die, like people who are in these horrible terrorist attacks. Sudden death is bad, but death after terror is just unthinkable to me, and yet it happens so often. We have a case ongoing in US right now of a man, a registered sexual predator of children, who (allegedly, but I only say that because of legalities, you have to say allegedly) killed 3 members of a family and took two young children hostage to use them for sex, and he killed the boy--his remains have been identified now--but was caught when some keen-eyed people saw him with the little girl at a restaurant in the middle of the night, and so he is in jail and her 6-week nightmare is over except that she saw things nobody should ever see. I think about what they went through, and the terror of that little boy, and I feel sick inside.
What I do not think I will ever be able to understand is how people get so that they can do these things. What turns off the "humanity" button, and reduces what were people to animals, or less than animals because these people have souls! I will never understand terrorism.
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Hugs to Nolen and Andranneth! I'm so relieved neither you nor your friends were hurt.
I can't understand terrorism either, or any of these worst crimes. At least in a direct fight against individuals who are trying to harm you, it could be called legitimate, but to target people just because you feel like hurting someone or because they happen to live in a country you don't like or because their deaths will frighten others -- that's monstrous.
There is a part in one of C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" books that sort of applies (and think how long ago he wrote them): There are Talking Bears who are decent neighbors, but also wild bears that *look* just like the Talking Bears but will attack because they are wild. And a character asks, Wouldn't it be awful if it were the same with humans, some of them with souls and some that are wild animals but look the same as real people?
Now in real life, I have to believe that every person, no matter how evil, does have a soul, but apparently some people can "turn off" their humanity in order to do these terrible things. I don't understand how.
Re: London
Truth to be told, we knew it could happen. Al-Qaeda threatened to attack those countries who supported the war on Iraq: first they bombed Madrid (what was very unjust since 95% of spaniards were against war, and please, don't take me wrong, I'm not saying londoners deserved it!), and next in the list was London. So, as I said, we were ready (sort of) knowing that it could happen (as Paris was/is and, after all, we had nothing to do with the War on Iraq, quite the contrary).
The "funny" thing is that they seem to be following my family :P You know, my elder sister was in NY with her husband, on holidays, the day the Twin Towers were attacked (and I remember those days as a nightmare, since we couldn't contact them, with we all thinking if my nephew, who was 4 by the time, if he would be an orphan or not). And then, my second sister (the one who visited me with her husband and my three nieces and left two days before the blasts), well, they live in Madrid, so, they were there when the trains were attacked (we didn't get very worried since we knew they had nothing to do there, at the Railway Station, so soon in the morning, but nonetheless...). And now this, right when I am living in London :P Our third sister and her bf were thiking (are, still) to visit Berlin or Rome this summer; I wonder if we should warn Mr. Köhler and Mr. Berlusconi :P My parents seem to be free of this curse, for now :P
What scares me the more is to think that I might have been there, for I use to stop, daily, in King's Cross and Edgware Ross. And it doesn't scare me because I could have died but because it would be so... unexpected; where's the risk while going to uni or work?. But I guess it was not in my fate to die that day.
And yep, always so closer to us. Scary, eh? It makes me think a lot about.
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