London Lalling
| posted by Fast Company staffMy ride to work on the Tube yesterday was different. Commuters on London's Underground don't normally make eye contact, let alone speak to one another, but yesterday morning they were smiling and chatting as the front pages of their papers celebrated how London had scooped the Olympic prize.
But by the time I'd got to my desk, the tunnels beneath London had become the scene of tragedy. Today London is a desperately sad city.
Prime Minister Tony Blair returned from the G8 summit yesterday to pledge that the terrorists will never change our way of life.
Yet the truth is that they have, and they will. As the people of cities like New York, Madrid and London know, worry, fear and suspicion are now part and parcel of daily life in a major city. Most days we conclude it's a price worth paying. But what must the families and friends of the 50 people killed yesterday be thinking today?
However, like New York and Madrid, London will recover and rebound. A few years ago I interviewed John Toner, the general manager of the Europa Hotel in Belfast, which has been the subject of terrorist attacks on more than 30 occasions. "I sometimes think how much easier this job would be if we were in a different situation," he told me. "But we pick ourselves up each time and say, 'Let's have a good day tomorrow'."
Comment
Recent Comments | 1 Total
July 12, 2005 at 12:02am
MorpheusIt's unfortunate what happened in London. Now imagine how the Iraqis feel as their whole country has been laid to waste following Blair's commands. Morally, is Blair in a different position than terrorists?
We are one humanity, and all of us are suffering in one way or another. Instead of blaming others and trying to eradicate them, in the hopes that their eradication will eradicate our own pain (which is why people kill), we need to go within ourselves to resolve our suffering.
We are all psychological nut cases. Some more than others.
When we realize that the cause of our pain is ourselves (not the terrorists, not the West, not anyone who index fingers can point at) we will stop killing each other, and instead, we'll begin to work on cleansing our own psyches.
It starts with you:
thework.com