Another day of infamy

I'm not old enough to remember Pearl Harbor, but that event coined the phrase we have heard countless times in old newsreels spoken so eloquently by President Roosevelt. Alas, we now have another "Day of Infamy" to add to our history books.

It's two days after the bombings in London, and I think that full realisation has just hit me. It's as if I've been somewhat in shock, just like I was after 9/11. A certain feeling of powerlessness to help, but a resolve to resume normalcy (whatever that really is) to keep the bastards from getting what they want: fear.

Neither of these cowardly events were in "my backyard". I live in the southern USA, and the last horrific event here were the Westside schoolyard shootings. That WAS in my backyard. The 'terrorists' in this case were an 11 year old and a 13 year old. How that changed the whole character of this community! Parents were afraid to send their children to school. Schools became fortresses patrolled by uniformed police. Personal belongings were searched to gain entrance to classrooms. CNN was here, camped on the doorstep. It was the end of the innocence in Northeast Arkansas.

So, I can only imagine how the bombings affected those so much closer to them. My first news about the bombings came from the internet, almost at noon Central time. I had slept late, and gone over to help sort out some new computer gear for someone, and the tv was recording movies, not on a channel. When I checked my email, Yahoo news had this headline about 37 people being killed in subway blasts. My heart fell at my feet. I have friends there! I know it's a big place, but so are New York, and D.C., and I had people in both those places I cared about on 9/11, and just like this I had to know that they were safe, and couldn't rest until I knew they were. I frantically blasted off a batch of emails, knowing full well that my friends had much more to deal with than answering them. I could only let them know that I was concerned. Concerned isn't a strong enough word here. I'm not sure what the correct one would be. To put it in crass terms, I was scared shitless for them. That's more accurate.

Like the way the populace rallied in the world for the WTC victims, the Pentagon victims, and the plane crash victims, I feel much of the same support system for the people of the UK. There is little I can do as an individual across the vast pond. I went outside a few minutes ago and tied another red/white/blue ribbon on my car antenna, next to the one that has been there since September 12, 2001 and is barely a shred. I vowed not to take it off until our troops were safely home. I will probably send this car to the scrapyard before that happens.

But I can hope. It's all I have.