Kind thoughts...
Jul. 7th, 2005 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sepdetfeel small and inadequate, but I offer my great sympathy to frightened, hurt, and bereaved ordinary folks in London who have had their world turned upside down. Thanks go to emergency services for doing their job as well as humanly possible, under rotten circumstances. There's people hurt and injured tonight in hospital... or with loved ones and friends who won't come home. Thankfully not too many, considering where this happened, but that is no consolation to those affected.
I offer a side prayer that citizens remain sensible and realize that ordinary Muslims are just as appalled and were themselves targets today. The scapegoat reflex is a very typical human fear-response -- predictable, but totally execrable. I did notice leaders (including the Mayor of London, Archbishop of Canterbury) making cautionary statements of this type, as well as ordinary folks writing into the BBC website, so I saw some hope of sane responses.
A part of me is keenly aware of Lae's odd situation. First she didn't get to go to England, a trip she'd spent a year planning. But she was still getting to go to Scotland, her first time away from home. Alas, the timing turned out to be less than ideal: one doesn't think about G8 conferences tying up a place! Security will be even more heightened now, and I'm guessing her parents are anxious. (Okay, heck, I'm a little concerned too, but Lae wisely bops me for being a worrywort.)
I offer a side prayer that citizens remain sensible and realize that ordinary Muslims are just as appalled and were themselves targets today. The scapegoat reflex is a very typical human fear-response -- predictable, but totally execrable. I did notice leaders (including the Mayor of London, Archbishop of Canterbury) making cautionary statements of this type, as well as ordinary folks writing into the BBC website, so I saw some hope of sane responses.
A part of me is keenly aware of Lae's odd situation. First she didn't get to go to England, a trip she'd spent a year planning. But she was still getting to go to Scotland, her first time away from home. Alas, the timing turned out to be less than ideal: one doesn't think about G8 conferences tying up a place! Security will be even more heightened now, and I'm guessing her parents are anxious. (Okay, heck, I'm a little concerned too, but Lae wisely bops me for being a worrywort.)
