One week on London remembers

��

A week later now I remember seeing on TV the first minutes of the London bombings reports, playing in my mind as if they had been reported just now, the feeling of surprise, shock and fear coursing through my body as I looked at the television, my eyes glued on the streaming information. The first news reports had come in only moments after I had woken up. I was still groggy when I walked into the living room and switched on the TV. I was going to go into the kitchen and set the kettle to boil so I could make some coffee to wake myself up when my mind registered the words “ London” and “bombings” I heard from the news reporter. All the grogginess I was feeling only mere seconds ago had disappeared, along with thoughts of making coffee and I was wide awake.

My mind at the time was racing, and there was no sign that I had just woken up except for the dishevelled hair and rough face; I was thinking of the people that were right in the middle of that entire crisis and then it hit me. I started to wonder if someone from my family or my friends were in London and something had happened. I tried to push those thoughts aside and be hopeful, be optimistic. Where there was fear, chaos thrived. This was not a time to feel afraid; this was a time for everyone to do everything in their power to help those next to them. We have to show that we are not afraid.

Lately things have been going crazy with the world, the media constantly telling us about the bombings in London and of how many families were affected by them either through the loss of a loved one, or through the tormenting of being left in the dark, wondering if someone you cared about was alright or not. The phone networks were on fire that day, calls being diverted through endlessly, and relaying information about what was happening. At some point a report came in that the phone network providers were asking the public to use their phone only for emergency reasons.

What never stopped happening was the increasing number in casualties. I saw the reports coming through about the people that were wounded from the explosions and it looked like a disaster. I was glad to see that the emergency teams were extremely efficient; ensuring that all that could be done was being done to help.

I was glad that the number of people that had been hurt during the bombings had stopped increasing, but the moment that surge of happiness coursed through my veins, I hated myself for it. There was nothing good about it; certainly those involved didn’t feel any happiness. But to be blatantly honest, in a way it makes you appreciate how delicate life is, and surely those that are alive are glad for it. My heart goes out to those that were affected.

I just couldn’t put in my mind the thought that there were people out there that could actually do something like this, who would fathom it. The London Underground took a heavy hit along with at least one bus, but that was nothing compared to the number of lives that were affected.

Rumours are being brought up about the terrorists being ‘sleepers’, people who go and live in a different country, to live under the radar as native residents until the time comes for them to act. It makes me wonder what it’s like to have so much hate in a heart, what is to become of these people that contain it within them, what happened at some stage in their lives to become like this. Why is it that the innocent people are always the ones to pay for the hatred of others? A very good friend of mine brought this thought to me, and I was shocked and appalled by these people. Why do they choose to act this way? Is it to bring a change to the world radically? If so, the only result they bring is pain, not signs of a better world. Through the act of war, all that comes out of it is pain and death, nothing good comes out of it; there are no winners in a war.

The explosions happened only a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and just as the G8 summit with the G8 leaders was getting under way in Scotland, which makes me wonder if they’re somehow connected. At first they thought it could have been something like a power surge, but later on they found explosives, making it look like it was a planned attack.

Now, only a week after the bomb attacks last Thursday, millions of people stood in silence for two minutes, to show their respect to those that died because of the attacks. There is nothing we can do to bring back those people, but we can surely do everything we can to stop something like this from happening again.

Don’t remember how these people died; instead, remember how they lived.