London
Well, I haven’t posted here for a while now. But in light of the terrible bombings that have just transpired in London I felt the need to post a few thoughts. What I have heard over the past few hours indicates that like many other terrorist attacks, these bombings have brought the whole world into a feeling of unity. All I can hope is that out of this terrible tragedy we can forge some good and really tackle the problem at hand: general inequality and injustice in the world.
The more we continue to exert our powerful military force around the world, the more we create people who resent our presence in the world. The more the United States tarnishes its reputation with acts of torture the more we limit our ability to bring about positive change in the world. It may seem that we, in the west, have nothing in common with the people that perpetrate these attacks. But what we do need to remember is that we all inhabit the same world, that we are all human. Our actions in the past few years have generated a large amount of resentment throughout the Middle East. Rather than burning bridges, we must reach out to those living in poverty around the world and show them that we want to help them. Occupying foreign countries is not the way to do this.
I sincerely hope that through this tragedy we can begin to forge a new kind of relationship with the developing world: one not of imperialism, but of partnership. Most of all we must realize that as Londoners suffer from these threats, so do we all. It is clear that we cannot blame ourselves for these attacks, but what we can do is proactively solve the problems in the world that provide extremist leaders with the people they need to carry out these attacks. My thoughts go out to London and my family in the UK. I know that everybody is doing their best to help those in need, I hope for the best for all those injured and all those who may have lost loved ones in these attacks.
-Ben Childs
