Today, 115 people were killed in the USA, several hundred gravely injured, their bodies torn, their lifes senselessly disrupted.
In the UK, 10 people were killed; in France, 15; in Germany another 15; in each country, dozens were injured for life, with the prospect of months in hospitals, families wrecked by the terrible circumstances and the senseless victims.
Did they make the headlines? Not today, and not yesterday, when the same number of lifes were destroyed.
Of course, the culprit in that case was car accidents, not terrorism. Did we send the army on our highways and city roads to track the killers? Did we arrest all drivers for being potential criminals? Did we take drastic measures to reduce car use? Did we declare a “war on drivers”? Did we spent a few hundred billion, create a new administration, give police extra powers to stem this relentlessly deadly phenomenon?
And did our leaders interrupt the G8 Summit to talk about theses deaths and say that they were a threat to our civilisation?
Why not? Why don’t these deaths terrorise us? They are just as gruesome, as senseless, as random and as deadly as deaths from bombs. They are more likely to strike us, as they happen every single day of the year, and they are not easily preventable as what would be the most efficient way to do that strikes deep at our beloved individual freedoms.
Or maybe we should look at it the other way round. Why do we give terrorists such prominence? Why do we talk about them and their actions so much that it so totally influences our foreign policies, out civil liberties and our mindsets?
Let’s ignore them. Treat them as statistical noise. Stop giving them a political platform.
It’s just a big traffic accident. It’s a terrible tragedy for those involved, and we should make sure that they are propely taken care of, helped, supported to restart their lifes, but it should be given no more political significance.
Let’s stop giving terrorists the importance they do not deserve. Let’s not give them a victory by changing our lifes out of fear.
Funny you should mention this as I just posted something to the effect that bushco has made Al Queda into the Rock Stars of terrorists and thus given them worldwide name recognition. attention and status. Not that they should not be found and tried for crimes but giving them this status has made it I would imagine far far easier for them to recruit and many other bonus’s they didn’t have when not known to general public.
I agree- the terrorists are not the real issue or the real problem- just a convenient exploited ‘nuisance’ so that THEY-Bushco etc., can continue to rape and pillage the earth’s resources and its poor people.
I hate to sound so callous but an event like this bombing in London is newsworthy and it is good to know that the MSM can report real news now and then. Maybe we can thank the terrorists for that at least.
It’s not that I don’t care, it’s that there are so many things to care about now and I am overwhelmed with anger at my fellow man and myself with our inability to FIX any of this fucking shit!! What is wrong with US-all of us??
In terms of importance, Jerome, this was the biggest attack on London since WWII. I understand your point, but I don’t think your analogy fits the situation.
Did they [car accidents] make the headlines? Not today, and not yesterday, when the same number of lifes were destroyed.
Where I live, every car accident involving death or serious injury does make the headlines each day and we have aggressive public campaigns to prevent such accidents.
You can’t ignore terrorists any more than you can ignore any other threat to public safety.
I believe I understand your stance that terrorists given platforms and publicity will reinforce their actions. I don’t understand however any comparison of death through terrorism and death through car accidents. One is intentional murder, one is not.
One is intentional murder, one is not.
I realize it sounds cold, I’m not sure that this is that important.
Terrorism has been a fact of urban life in the UK and Germany (and Italy?) since the 70s, in the rest of Europe since the 80s and in the US since at least the 90s. I suspect that the insurance companies have already computed the risk of your or my dying in a terrorist attack on any given day – just like they have for car wrecks. (Is there an actuary in the house?)
So I agree with Jerome. The attack should be accorded the attention in keeping with the actual (and not the perceived) risk to public safety. And not only to deny the terrorists their platform.
I personally believe that the worst thing we can do right now is to panic (again) and give the authoritarians in power an(other) opportunity to curtail civil and human rights.
My daughter had an exchange teacher from London. Ms. Barrie, relative to Sir James Barrie.
She taught my daughter when 9/11 happened.
She wasn’t too upset. In fact, I found her to be quite… flippant about it all really. She said that London has bombings all the time. That it was just a matter of life.
Today many more will die because their husbands murdered them or their parents beat them to death or because a drunk got behind the wheel of a car and destroyed an entire family. No film at eleven, of course.
Air Dafur, Africa. Air Iraq.
Thanks Jerome in Paris.
I was in Social Work, and was continuslly depressed by the work In one sentence you summed up my three biggest targets of rage: spousal abusers, child abusers and drunk drivers.
Yup.
But today, the main threat to me and my family is Bush, Inc and the people who “believe” in him…
I pretty much blame Bush for everything that is wrong in today’s world, if not directly, than indirectly. If not indirectly, than by creating an environment of hostility.
Why aren’t you still in Social work? Burned out?
I once met a lady who did counseling for abuse survivors. She dropped out because mostly of the red tape and the system.
We lost the people who care the most it seems. She said something that I still remember…
That the people who can continue working in that field are the very ones who turn themselves off from their jobs – thereby becoming apathetic to the system and the victims… which are the wrong people for the job.
I did some advocacy work on a smaller level and BOY did it burn my ass out.
A few reasons – the higher you go in the system the less client/patient contact. I despise meetings and “interfacing” with other department heads over turf battles and just wanted to be with my clients. Which pays, of course, nothing. Also, my son was a preschooler when I gave it up. I wanted to work part-time and there was little suitable. I found agency work with folks just released from long term institutionalization, the most diffilcult population to motivate. At the time I was doing volunteer work at my son’s school. I was asked to sub there. I always assumed I’d get back to Rehab work, but my son’s in college and I’m still subbing. But I have a niche – I do Special Ed, which most subs won’t touch.
So I’m still a “do-gooder” but I get to work with people who smile and laugh. Most of my paid work didn’t depress me, my volunteer work made me miserable: shelters for abused women, TBI patients.
Those who are in those fields have my complete respect. Sorry for the lengthy response!
yup, we can go on and talk about different kinds of terrorism too….we have plenty of it in congress and the WH if you ask me. I see verbal and written terrorism on a daily basis. I think we still have to pay attention to it all. Once the dying stops then we can stop addressing it. to me terrorism=death…and not only in the bodily fashion either..there is a mental death to be addressed too. But not to belittle your thought here..good diary.
I understand the point but I’d have to disagree. Methods and motives matter. Death through terrorism is qualitatively different for the community than accidental death. Let me offer an example. Recently there was a racist attack on some black youths in a working class white neighbourhood here in NYC. One died IIRC. Lots of people die every day in NYC from all sorts of accidents and crimes. Yet this one got far more press. Was that wrong? Was it bizarre for the racist murder in Jasper, TX a few years ago to hit the front pages all around the nation, and indeed Europe as well?
I don’t think so.