We're Not Afraid

If the point of the attacks last year was to make London, The United Kingdom, or the world cower in fear, I'm happy to say that they failed miserably! London is a lovely place full of wonderful people which has survived the bombings beautifully.

Today, marking the first anniversary of this stupid act of terrorism, London will be observing a minute of silence at 08:47 (British Summer Time) to commemorate the forty-six people who died in the three bombings on the tube. An hour later, the city will observe another minute of silence to remember the six additional people killed when a bomb went off on a bus on Edgeware road. All-in-all, fifty-two innocent people were brutally murdered one year ago today. Even the tennis at Wimbledon will come to a stop today to honor the dead.

Ironically, only the tubes will not come to a stop. The official reason given is the fear of overloading the circuitry by bringing all the trains to a halt simultaneously. I believe that everyone on the tube at the time will say their own private remembrance.

I remember where I was this time last year. I was actually preparing to come back over here. I didn't hear of the attacks until I had gotten up for the morning. It was 03:30 AM Denver Time (about an hour after the last bomb went off here in London) that I heard the news on ABC. I immediately was on the phone to my office over here to make sure that all my colleagues had made it into the office safely. My sister called me an hour later to see if I was in London or Denver.

Although my daily life takes me nowhere near the area where the bombings took place, I do occasionally make it into central London and have been past the places where these acts took place. Even now, a year on, it brings a lump to my throat to think about it. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims of the bombings.

One of my favorite commemorations of the bombing victims is the website WereNotAfraid (http://www.werenotafraid.com/) where people have posted messages to the perpetrators of the senseless violence. I believe it is important to send the message to the cowards who get other people to violently attack innocent people for their own twisted aims that their sick plans to terrorize people into thinking their way just will not work.

We are not afraid of them and we will not be cowed into doing what they want. Today, I stand with the people of London (emotionally as well as physically) in defying the terrorists. We're not afraid of you, you wankers!

I hope wherever you are today you will take a moment to think about the victims of 07th July 2005 and the senselessness of the act that ended their lives so tragically.

Don Bergquist - 07 July 2006 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK