Going to London

Tomorrow I will be going to London for work. The other day, after the second bombing incident in London, a colleague of mine (who is Dutch) asked me whether I still wanted to go. The question left me completely flabbergasted. My reaction may be due to the fact that I am Italian (and Italy has seen its share of terrorism, both national and international), that I have been to Israel several times and identify with the place, or simply that I have a difficult character and hate being forced to do things. At any rate, I have learned that the only sensible reaction to terrorism is to continue living a normal life. Obviously one must take appropiate precautions, but once that's done I would frankly rather die in a terrorist attack than change my way of life because of the threat and cower at home.

I cannot do much of substance to combat the threat, but this at least I can do: I will absolutely refuse to be intimidated, and if enough people think this way the terrorists' purpose will have been defeated. And we can even go a step further to spit in their face: the truth is it hadn't even crossed my mind that one would change his plans because of them, and this would be the ideal reaction on our part, to be prudent and then to ignore them completely. I am confident that enough people in the free world have the will and courage to steadfastly face this threat too.

This is a picture of the Holland House Library in London, the day after it was bombed by the Germans in 1940. That's the spirit!
These despicable terrorists have awakened a slumbering dragon, the West, and they will deeply regret it. Because as Churchill said "We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"