London

In 1990 I was in London as a part of a high school trip with Mr. Doerning, our Brit Lit teacher. During that time, I distinctly remember being on the Tube and having the entire system stop for about a 1/2 hour, because of bomb threats, and being in the British Museum during a lockdown, where I sat under a statue calculating its probable trajectory in case of a blast. When I heard about the bombings yesterday on my way to teach my class on Brit Lit, I was, of course, saddened about the loss of life and disruption of peace -- but I have much more confidence that Britain can handle this much better than we did. After the two incidents when I was there in 1990 (both false alarms) we all went on with the stuff of daily business, not giving into fear or panic.

Terrorism works because we give into the fear of it. My contribution to the "war on terror?" (stupid phrase) Not being terrorized, and not listening to the fear-mongering coming from so many of our country's leaders.