London Calling

Made the rounds, everyone who hangs here is okay, as far as I can tell.

Not posting any of that "Today we're all Londoners" crap. No. We're not. We're not pacing fruitlessly in front of the television, waiting for updates. We're not trying to reach loved ones on a shut-down cell phone system, not hearing sirens, not catching sight of something awful because we rounded the wrong corner.

London's been bombed flat during the Blitz, suffered riots, more bombings during the Troubles, and now this. And all the while, as Warren points out, without losing their bottle. I wouldn't presume to claim the stones to be a Londoner.

All I can do is what anyone should do when a friend suffers a loss. Say we're sorry. You're in our thoughts. If you need anything, call.

They're in a situation most of us can only imagine, and frankly I find it kind of cheap the way we can nod and say "We're all Londoners/from Madrid/Americans now" and then go back to our daily lives where, quite frankly, absolutely nothing has changed*. It's a way of surfing off other people's real grief, however well-intentioned.

To give due to sincerity, I suppose one can argue that to say "Today we' all Londoners/Madrid, etc." is a way of showing common cause, a shared outrage at the death of innocents. A sadness at the suffering of a fellow person, regardles sof location or nationality or even personal intimacy. A shudder at the tear in the fabric of what we consider humanity to be. When we say it in that context, what we're really saying is "Today, we are all human beings."

Just a bit goddam sad we find the need to say that out loud. Or even that we need to say it at all.




* Nothing has changed except, of course, our perception of the world. But confusing the change in one's perception of the world with concrete changes in one's day to day life -- or even confusing a change in one's perception of the world as a change in the state of the world itself, is a.) the basis for most American behaviour for the last four years and b.) in every other context, a sign of mental illness.