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7/7 20 Years On

20 years ago, when blogging was a new past-time, and this blog had just recently begun, a major terrorist attack took place in London. This is what I posted that day, here, exactly 20 years ago:

"The thing we feared most has happened: Madrid-style, multiple terrorist attacks on the London Underground and bus routes in the heart of London, timed with surgical cruelty after London's Olympic win and the start of the G8 summit. It is an unsettling time, and there have been many casualties. So far, over 33 fatalities have been reported.

It is - weatherwise and ironically (as in New York in 2001) - a warm, sunny day now, with lovely blue skies. Tens of thousands of would-be commuters are slowly walking home early. With no underground system, some mainline services closed, and few buses in Zone 1, some will be walking for hours. The streets are eerily calm, punctuated by sirens.

The people of London, accustomed to such things, are brave and will endure, but this is a sad day for all who love London and live here."

Nothing more to be said, except now we know 52 died, and over 800 were injured, some very seriously. In interviews, we now know of immense bravery and kindness to the dying and injured from others on hand, including fellow passengers and first responders, and we also know that many who survived still think daily of this terrible event.

The world is not safer, or better, and there were other attacks in the UK afterwards; but London and its people have endured. Today, as an aside, is not warm or sunny, but cool and rainy.

As the poet Larkin once said: "man hands on misery to man" and in another context, "what survives of us is love". Between those two sentiments is the world, and its realities, and challenges.


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