OFF TOPIC
A Londoner very close to me sent me these words, after I stated to him that I and my American friends were absolutely enraged at what happened in London yesterday:
Oliver
I am reminded of a speech by Richard Nixon, not the most honourable of human beings but certainly one of the greatest speech writers, this is an extract from his farewell speech to the White House staff, which has a certain poignancy:
"the greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.
And so I say to you on this occasion, as we leave, we leave proud of the people who have stood by us and worked for us and served this country.
We want you to be proud of what you have done. We want you to continue to serve in government, if that is your wish. Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."
Hate is a pointless emotion, it has no purpose other than to perpetuate what gave rise to it in the first instance. Does London want to see those who perpetrated this act brought to justice, to a man they do. Do we want to see acts of retaliation that, as has been demonstrated in the past, often replicate the acts of terror that we have experienced in our cities but on a greater scale and involving large numbers of innocent people, people like me, like you, who just happen to live in a place that puts them at risk - no. You will never be able to eradicate the groups of individuals that seek to cause terror, be it wrapped up in the name of a political or religious cause or whatever they claim to represent. They have one aim and one aim only, to cause terror, for that is how they seek to influence the world. To react with further acts or terror simply feeds oxygen to their flames and gives them the result they seek, chaos, anarchy, de-stabilisation and terror.
London is truly one of the world's greatest cities, it has experienced some of the worst lows (we lived with the IRA for 25-30 years, in which time countless buildings were destroyed, hundreds of innocent lives lost) and some of the greatest highs, winning the 2012 games united the whole city and gave it an amazing atmosphere of elation, of being proud to be chosen - how quickly that can disappear. It echoes Nixon's speech and is why London is truly a great city, it has depth and it has spirit which will not be broken. London is "open", its "business as usual". We will not be beaten into submission, we will not be prisoners to the fear of attack and we will not change our lives and for that reason the terrorists of this world will not succeed. Their fight is ultimately futile.
The eye of the world is currently upon London, for the Live8 concerts, for the 2012 Olympics and now for the atrocities of yesterday. That eye sees a beacon of hope and strength to the rest of the world, we want to make poverty history and want to do something about it, we want to unite with the rest of the world and host a games true to the Olympic spirit and we will not be diverted from those paths by the acts witnessed yesterday. That is how you beat terrorism.
London out. |
