When love slips away

A couple of disjointed thoughts about the bombs …

• Why did the terrorists, if they were Islamic, decide to include the Aldgate station, which is so highly populated by the Muslim community? Was this community hit because through generations its British Muslim citizens have embraced Western customs?
• Why do Muslim mothers in our community have to feel afraid to leave their homes to go pick up their children from school, or even to go to the grocery store? They prefer to honour their religious beliefs by wearing their hijabs when out in public. But they feel marked when they do and suffer glaring stares. So sad.
• Why did the terrorists only use five pounds of explosives at each site? Was this supposed to just be a dry run?
• This is the first time ever the Queen has addressed a tragedy and made a public speech as quickly after the event.

Londoners are used to bombs due to:

• The Blitz in 1940 and 1941. That horrible period is still widely remembered by many here. Those who lived through it, and share their testimonies reference it quite a bit at church events or during times of worship. My American government would not come to the aid of the British until after the heavy loss of American lives at Pearl Harbour.
• Kent, the Garden of England, which is now my home, was the site of the Battle of Britain, also still vivid in many memories.
• Unexploded ordinance from the Blitz is still being uncovered. Shortly after moving here, a bomb was unearthed just about a mile away from our house and the bomb squad was called out. Over 60 years since WWII ended. Exciting for me, as nothing like that ever happened in any of the neighbourhoods where I grew up in the States. But just ‘ho-hum’ here … ‘Now how about that cuppa tea, luv?’
• The years of The Troubles and the terrorism of the IRA, which, embarrassingly enough for me, as some of my British and Irish friends have pointed out, were aided by Americans sympathetic to a cause not quite understood.
• Tragic losses of life have occurred in major cities in the UK as late as November 2001, due to explosives attributed to and claimed by the IRA.

My husband remembers a day in the late-’90’s when he was working in Central London and heard a bomb blast across the street from his office. The bomb squad had been called in to deactivate a bomb placed in the MacDonald’s on Oxford Street by the IRA. The store was evacuated but the bomb specialist was killed while trying to diffuse the ordinance.

I went to choir rehearsal on Friday night, and not one mention of the tragedy was made. No one is going to let the terrorists take control.

That being said, not too many fancy using the Tube at present or anytime soon. We also feel a little nervous on the buses. Our transport system is such a huge way of life here:

• car parks are extremely rare here;
• It can take 1-and-a-half to 2 hours to just drive the 15 miles into Central London because of traffic congestion;
• Petrol is now equivalent to $7-$8 per gallon, and the transport is a much less costly way to get around. But my American friends have difficulty relating to that, because now they are all whingeing about having to pay a paltry $2.20 at the pump. And they all drive huge gas-guzzling monsters because they get a false sense of security driving cars classed as trucks.

We all know how vulnerable our transport system is. John has to go into Charing Cross Monday, but he’s decided to walk the distance from there to his appointment rather than take the Tube.
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On another sad note, I read today where a string of churches in Smyrna, Tennessee in the US were torched and set afire late this week. Although different denominations were represented, all the churches were predominantly Black congregations. The Church of Christ barely has a wall standing. The police chief of the town was not too quick to finger the atrocity as a ‘hate crime’. What an insult … what else could it be? Lightning?

There are terrorists everywhere. They do not necessarily come from other countries but operate from within our own borders. When are we going to get that? They hide behind religion, nationality, and skin colour. They are not all Muslim, Jew, Catholic or Protestant, Christian, Sikh, Hindu, Trendy-Religious-Belief-of-the-Year, etc. They thrive on fear and share hatred as their common cause.

Somehow, our society has found a way to breed this hatred. No one wants to address this, because it's all too complicated, and that makes us all a bit guilty. I wish I knew the answers.

But I don’t. All I know is that I must love and care for others a lot more than I do, and extend my heart to more than those I just meet and get to know in church.

That's a lot of work. Any ideas?