Dear worried Americans (and Canadians)

[baratron]

I can't pretend to speak for all Londoners, but for the ones I do speak for...

I imagine it's worse for you because of 9/11 flashbacks, but we're ok. Seriously. London has been dealing with bombs since the Blitz in WWII. We had the IRA blowing up parts of London and SE England for 25 years, forgodsake. Even despite their ceasefire, we still have reinforced post boxes and litter bins on the streets, and no litter bins on public transport. (This was the thing that amazed me most about recent travels in the US - the authorities claiming they were afraid of attack, yet there were bins everywhere - even in the airports!)

I grew up halfway between Sandhurst Military Academy (where Prince Harry is going) and Aldershot, the home of the British Army. We had a bomb scare every other week, and about 1/4 of them turned out to be real bombs. Evacuating Marks & Spencer to go and sit in McDonalds for half an hour until we got the all-clear was just what we did. You just pay attention to any unattended bags or packages, and get on with it.

I remember the Selfridges bomb, the bomb on the rail line between Brookwood and Woking, the Canary Wharf bomb, the bus that blew up along the Strand... all ones that people I know were caught up in. Only a few years ago, a lone nut decided to nailbomb parts of London associated with ethnic minorities and queers - the bomb blowing up the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho affected me deeply, not least of all because Richard's work is just round the corner from it and one of his co-workers only narrowly escaped injury. But we survived. The pub is still standing, and features a memorial to the people who died - and I urge anyone interested in queer history to go there and see.

We've had terrorists, nuts and loons for longer than I've even been alive. This is just another one of those things. It's tragic for the families of the people killed, but they can't get us all. They didn't manage it in WWII. They won't manage it now.

P.S. I don't often agree with him, but Go Ken!

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're safe, and that you can handle this with such equanimity, even as I hate the fact that you've had the experiences that allow you to do so.

We're so sheltered here.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've been particularly traumatised by living in a city that people have been trying to blow up for 400 years. It's just something you take in your stride. In the same way that you walk tall and confidently when alone on the street at night, you keep your eyes open for any smoke or strange packages or unattended bags. It's terrifying when you're a child, old enough to understand what's happening but young enough to fear imminent death. But by the time you're older, it's just how life is.

People talk about British stoicism and reserve. But a high percentage of people who consider themselves Londoners were born elsewhere - in other parts of Britain, and elsewhere in the world. Living in this city is a choice - there's a reason why Londoners look down on the "provincials" who commute in from other parts of SE England. (Why work in London but live elsewhere, when this is the best city in the world?). Certain behaviours get ingrained in anyone who chooses to live here for some time. While London is anonymous (like I even know what my neighbours look like) and its etiquette seems positively rude to outsiders (starting up a conversation with a stranger on the Tube? absolute no-no!), enough of us have ancestry who lived through the Blitz to know what to do. In an emergency, you pull together and help whoever needs help, whether you know them or not. When the emergency's over, you go back to normal.