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The London Bombings: Soldiering On
Contributed by: C Carter on 7/19/2005

As many times before in my life, bad news was precipitated by a phone call.  I was due to take an international flight to London on July 7, 2005.  This was a flight I had taken twice before this month.  I had seen a lot of London, walked around a bit, taken the subway called The Tube over there, bought a Harley Davidson T-Shirt, and had a pint or two with the locals at a Pub.  After getting our feel of the land, my coworkers and I were readying ourselves to take the normal touristy red double decker bus ride our next trip over.  It was probably going to be a good trip.  Nothing could have been further from the truth.

My work phone started ringing at about 0430 that morning.  It should have woken me up, but I left it downstairs in the kitchen before I retired for the evening. Once I got up at about 0600 and went to take a shower, my wife rolled over and told me she heard my work phone ringing downstairs.  I hustled downstairs and checked my voice mail.  There was a message that there had been a terrorist attack in London aboard The Tube.  After finishing with the voicemail and the calls I would have to make, I flipped on the TV to watch CNN where the rest of the world gets their news.  I watched for about ten minutes to get the latest while I drank a cup of coffee.  Once I was done, I went back upstairs to finish my morning preparation ritual.  Trying to be quiet in order to let my wife sleep, I tiptoed back across the bedroom but didn’t make it before she sat up in bed and asked me what was going on.  I delivered the news as stoically as possible.  I told her with my voice cracking slightly, “There’s been a terrorist attack in London.  They have bombed the subway several times, and even one of the buses.”  I continued to get ready while the news sank in. 

I have always strived to keep as much stress off of my wife as possible.   We have a three year old who is developmentally delayed in his speech and other areas, and she is also five months pregnant with our second child.  That combined with the continual underlying stress of not making and having enough money is enough stress to kill an elephant alone, so I don’t feel right by trying to add any more to her life.  I consider it part of my duty as a husband to make her life as hassle free as possible.  Today, I wasn’t going to be successful in doing so.   I had a job to do, and there was no question that I was going to do it.  I would be on a plane to London in a few hours, with no way probably to contact her once I got there.  Like New York City during 9/11, all of the cell phone networks were down due to the overload of trying to contact loved ones.  I would be gone for three days while she was home alone, worrying if I were OK or not.  I consider myself a tough guy, but tears of anger at another attack on our society and tears of shame for putting my wife through this welled in my eyes as I got in the shower.

Once I was done cleaning up, she entered our bathroom and said, “I wish you didn’t have to go.”

“I know.”

“Where did the explosions occur?” she asked. 

“The Picadilly Line, the Tube Line we take from the hotel to get to central London.  Initial reports said another one occurred at the Edgeware Road stop, right where we got off when we went to the Harley Davidson store a few days ago.”

“You guys were going to take the bus tour this time weren’t you?” she asks and I already know where this is going. 

“Yes, we were.  I won’t take it this trip, we’ll just lay low.  I’ll be OK.  If I can’t get in touch with you because of phone service, keep checking your e-mail as a backup so you know that I got there OK.”

“I wish-“

“I know, but I’ve got a job to do.” I say quietly, ending the discussion.  I hugged her, saw the worry in her pretty eyes, and felt like a first rate cad for the choice of job that I have.  But, I could no more not do what I do than the man in the moon could.  What I did, was part of me, was a lifestyle and very much a part of who I was. 

“I would really like to wake up and see Little Man before I leave, but I don’t want to do that to you, you’d probably be paying for it all day,” I say. She smiled her knowing understanding smile and watched me as I drove out of the garage.  It was time to go to work and soldier on. 

I thought of her and how fortunate I was to have the family I had.  This was something that the terrorists did not understand our get about our way of life.  Instead of inflicting terror or mass panic, it had to opposite affect on the majority of people I talked to when I finally landed in London.  After polite inquiries about the status of friends and families, all Londoners to a tee responded that everybody was OK, that they would soldier on, and that they were determined to have the bombings have the least affect on their lives as humanly possible.  It just wasn’t the British stiff upper lip thing; it was a human being living in a free and open society kind of thing.  When an attack against a freedom and democracy occurs, it galvanizes us, forces us to stop our busy lives and contemplate just for a second what are the most important things that are near and dear to our hearts.   Life is about relationships, those with your family and those with who you care about. If a terrorist attack reminds me once again of this fact, then that is the one small good to be found in this tragic event.  Do not get me wrong, the loss of loved ones, people still missing, the inevitable wounded people alive but missing limbs or worse; these are all terrible, horrible events that cause indescribable pain to those it affects.  My heart and prayers go out to them and their families.  I do not want for one second to diminish or minimize their sacrifice.  That being said, there is still some small pieces of good to be taken from this incident.

One good thing that comes from this is that it reminds us that terrorism and the people who commit it are not some abstract or random thing that seldom happens.  It has been my experience that the further in time you are from a traumatic event, the more denial is allowed to creep back into your consciousness.  “It won’t happen to me, it can’t happen here” is something that needs to be continually pushed from everyone’s mind.  It can happen to anyone at any time, anywhere; our enemy is indiscriminate.  In Great Britain, where anti-US and UK participation in the Iraq invasion sentiment runs particularly high, I hope this is a reminder that whether we like it or not we are in a war, a global war on terrorism.  I say we meaning mankind, because I do not buy into the professorial, political explanation and eventual justification of why terrorist activity. As a human being, I find it very distasteful that anyone finds, believes, tries to justify and explain or condones terrorist action as acceptable way to promote change or call attention to a political issue.  I feel the rhetoric after 9/11 of “the Americans brought it on themselves” and England’s “it was only a matter of time because of the support of the war in Iraq” is disrespectful and disgraceful to the victims and their families who have suffered. I have traveled extensively throughout the world, experienced many cultures and have found common threads woven throughout them all: emphasis on family, providing for your family, good health, a shelter over your head and food to eat.  Education, an opportunity to better yourself, and the ability and opportunity for your children to have and do better than you had it yourself. Anyone who would want or try to permanently deny anyone of these things through an act of terror should not be drawing good air a cow could be breathing.  There is no justifying such action, period.

I guess I am a patriot, but I am not a zealot.  As a citizen of this world, it is incumbent for everyone to soldier on.  Soldier on, you say? Yes, as a member of mankind, you are a soldier against the global war on terrorism, whether you like it or not.  You alone can choose how it affects you, your life, and your daily activities.  You can hide in denial, sit at home and hope it will all go away, but it will not until as members of a free society we take some responsibility for ourselves and decide how to respond to it.  You can soldier on by going back to work on the bus the day after they blow them up.  You can soldier on by not being afraid to ask that person sitting next to you if the unattended bag is theirs or not.  You can soldier on by going about your daily routine even in the midst of an attack, and you can soldier on by taking care of each other. You can soldier on by showing the resolve Americans did when they climbed back on the airplanes the week after they started flying after 9/11.  You can soldier on by not altering your travel plans because there might be a problem where you are going.  You can soldier on by riding the subway the days and weeks after the bombings.  You can soldier on by not entertaining the thought that all Muslims are responsible. 

There are bad people in this world with bad ideology.  Never, ever forget that.  To engage in denial and buy into the “justification” and explanation behind their activities is a discredit to the memory of those innocent lives lost in this war.  Terrorism is an enemy that has to and must be dealt with.  Decide to soldier on in your own way to let these terrorist know that no matter what, free societies and the people that live in them will not be extorted by violence or threats of violence.  To do so dishonors the memory of those dead and wounded from these unspeakable acts who have made the ultimate sacrifice. The next time another terrorist attack occurs, and there will be another one, I hope everyone will take an example from the British and soldier on. It’s the only appropriate response.

 


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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

C Carter

Arvada , CO

C Carter has posted 3 stories and 0 comments since joining on 9/14/2005. C Carter 's average story rating is 0.
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