Explosions in London

Montana · Post by **Montana** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:38 am

Woke up this morning and could tell something was wrong when the news was on at a time when they're normally playing classical music. It was a little deja vu like the Sept morning I woke up knowing something was wrong.
The BBC on NPR said 4 blasts but the link that Avanutria provided for the pictures said 7 blasts. And the fatalities keep rising.

Beaming energies of strength and comfort to all our C&F folks in the UK and those who aren't lucky enough to have such a community where they can go and find out what's happening to people they know.
Thanks for all the updates; this is better than the BBC since it's more personal...

River Otter · Post by **River Otter** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:40 am

This is just disgusting! There can be no punishment bad enough for the ones responsible.

I hope everyone from the C&F Board is OK. My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you.

Ken

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:52 am

I just want to add my wishes for Redwolf's safety. Looks like the group was planning on taking the tube - this is in her note about what they plan to do:

I emailed the person who is coordinating the trip about the Travelcards. She said "Great idea!" and went ahead and ordered them for us. It really is a wonderful idea, as we'll be relying heavily on the Tube and other forms of public transit, and the last thing anyone wants to do is have to fumble for correct change in an unfamiliar currency when you're trying to shepherd a bunch of kids around an unfamiliar city!

Sunnywindo · Post by **Sunnywindo** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 9:56 am

amar wrote:DAMN F*CKING Basmatis!!!

On the other hand, perhaps words can describe, or at least come close... they're just words I'm not accustomed to using but only words like these come close to expressing the feelings of such an event... all these

words along with every synonym in the thesaurus for outrage, sorrow, pain, frustration, disgust, etc.... Then words might finally be adequate.

Sara

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:07 am

Sunnywindo wrote:
amar wrote:DAMN F*CKING Basmatis!!!
On the other hand, perhaps words can describe, or at least come close... they're just words I'm not accustomed to using but only words like these come close to expressing the feelings of such an event... all these words along with every synonym in the thesaurus for outrage, sorrow, pain, frustration, disgust, etc.... Then words might finally be adequate.

Sara

OTOH, and I don't say this to be flip, but I'm reminded of the Emperor, Darth Sidious egging on Luke's anger in the climactic scene.
Of course we're outraged, and feel just as Amar said, but there's a piece of me that resists because I know that they're delighted by our outrage.
So what's left? These, of course:

Sunnywindo wrote:outrage, sorrow, pain, frustration, disgust...

But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.

amar · Post by **amar** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:09 am

emmline wrote:
Sunnywindo wrote:
amar wrote:DAMN F*CKING Basmatis!!!
On the other hand, perhaps words can describe, or at least come close... they're just words I'm not accustomed to using but only words like these come close to expressing the feelings of such an event... all these words along with every synonym in the thesaurus for outrage, sorrow, pain, frustration, disgust, etc.... Then words might finally be adequate.

Sara
OTOH, and I don't say this to be flip, but I'm reminded of the Emperor, Darth Sidious egging on Luke's anger in the climactic scene.
Of course we're outraged, and feel just as Amar said, but there's a piece of me that resists because I know that they're delighted by our outrage.
So what's left? These, of course:
Sunnywindo wrote:outrage, sorrow, pain, frustration, disgust...
But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.

good points emm. yep.

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:09 am

emmline wrote:But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.

I agree wholeheartedly, emm. Very well put. They DO just want us to be more angry. It will get us nowhere, as we have seen.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:13 am

izzarina wrote:
emmline wrote:But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.
I agree wholeheartedly, emm. Very well put. They DO just want us to be more angry. It will get us nowhere, as we have seen.

Amen.

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:17 am

izzarina wrote:
emmline wrote:But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.
I agree wholeheartedly, emm. Very well put. They DO just want us to be more angry. It will get us nowhere, as we have seen.

There's a place for emotion. Yeah, strong emotion is natural and healthy in these kinds of situations, but terrorists seem to like to manipulate countries by stirring up these intense emotions, and therefore, I think calm and collected is a good goal. People say to me, "what do you know about being a terror victim?" I've known much more of it than I'd like to have. My entire life has not been sheltered. I should write a book.

Cynth · Post by **Cynth** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:20 am

I was just listening to NPR (National Public Radio---but not a government station) and they are giving very good reports now, interviewing citizens, and the like. It is certainly the main story and considered to be a very grave situation. They played some music after the story instead of just moving on which indicates how seriously they are regarding it.

The citizens interviewed were so admirable. They said "We will not be intimidated", "We will go on with what we are supposed to do". They had not been injured, but they had been very close to being killed.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:20 am

Osama has written several times that he wants a war between Islam and the West because he considers Muslims who "get along" to get off the fence and take sides. I guess unreformed Medeivalists aren't big on gray areas.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:21 am

Walden wrote:
izzarina wrote:
emmline wrote:But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.
I agree wholeheartedly, emm. Very well put. They DO just want us to be more angry. It will get us nowhere, as we have seen.
There's a place for emotion. Yeah, strong emotion is natural and healthy in these kinds of situations, but terrorists seem to like to manipulate countries by stirring up these intense emotions, and therefore, I think calm and collected is a good goal. People say to me, "what do you know about being a terror victim?" I've known much more of it than I'd like to have. My entire life has not been sheltered. I should write a book.

I'd like a copy of that book when you get around to it.

dwinterfield · Post by **dwinterfield** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:22 am

izzarina wrote:
emmline wrote:But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.
I agree wholeheartedly, emm. Very well put. They DO just want us to be more angry. It will get us nowhere, as we have seen.

You're both right. Anger is part of grief and it's okay. The world is furious at the this sort of horror. The professionals in UK and elsewhere need to respond to this with unemotional resolve and bring justice to the people who did this. And quickly.

Sunnywindo · Post by **Sunnywindo** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:24 am

emmline wrote:OTOH, and I don't say this to be flip, but I'm reminded of the Emperor, Darth Sidious egging on Luke's anger in the climactic scene.
Of course we're outraged, and feel just as Amar said, but there's a piece of me that resists because I know that they're delighted by our outrage.
So what's left? These, of course:
Sunnywindo wrote:outrage, sorrow, pain, frustration, disgust...
But there has to be more--resolve, strength, compassion--at least for victims, and people trying to do good.....I don't know.

That's true enough to... and after the inital shock, may those things, the better side of human nature prevail over the evil that has been done.

Sara

avanutria · Post by **avanutria** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 10:28 am

Montana wrote:The BBC on NPR said 4 blasts but the link that Avanutria provided for the pictures said 7 blasts.

To clarify - in the confusion of the morning there were 6-7 affected locations mentioned, but this is because some of the blasts affected more than one tube station.

There were four blasts in total. Three on tube lines (two lines that are just under the surface and one "deep-level tube" which was harder to get to) and all the people have been brought aboveground. Those resulted in a total of 33 fatalities One blast on a number 30 bus, but they have not released the number of fatalities there. They were definitely saying "three busses" this morning but no one's mentioned the other two since then, so that could have been due to confusion as well.

I have a rather sick feeling that the reason they haven't released numbers for the bus incident is because they're still trying to figure out how many people were on there, which would not seem very hopeful for high survivor levels...

Those buses generally have about 20 seats up top and 20 plus standing room below; there are seating capacity charts inside and I think it's somewhere around 65, more if you really pack in for rush hour.