This is absolutely senseless to me:
I was so relieved this morning to hear from Adrian Trenholm of our Ho‘ohana Community ‘Ohana that he, his family and friends are fine, and I wanted to let you all know that he wrote to assure us. Because of the time change, Adrian’s message was actually the first I heard of the tragedy today, logging into my email after my morning run.
Yet this is still a day to pray for so many others in London, and for those elsewhere, who for some misguided reason do believe they can effect change by killing others.
If only they had read Stacy’s quote yesterday…
Adrian also wrote of server challenges on his blog right now, however I’m sure he will blog his reports for us when he can. First things first in his mālama for his home, something we can all understand and feel deeply for.
Update:
The merit of good values has been, and will always be the mainstay on Talking Story, and I applaud this statement from Tony Blair:
[From Jeff Jarvis, via Jay at Renaissance Girl:]
Tony Blair gives an eloquent statement, of course. It is about values.
It is through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values, and it is right at this moment that we demonstrate ours. I think we all know what they are trying to do – they are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cower us, to frighten us out of doing the things that we want to do, of trying to stop us going about our business as normal, as we are entitled to do, and they should not, and they must not, succeed.
When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated. When they seek to change our country or our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed. When they try to divide our people or weaken our resolve, we will not be divided and our resolve will hold firm. We will show, by our spirit and dignity, and by our quiet but true strength that there is in the British people, that our values will long outlast theirs. The purpose of terrorism is just that, it is to terrorise people, and we will not be terrorised.
I would like once again to express my sympathy and my sorrow to those families who will be grieving, so unexpectedly and tragically, tonight. This is a very sad day for the British people, but we will hold true to the British way of life.
A a “Brit” who now lives in the USA, I’d like to record how touched I have been by the immediate messages of support and solidarity I have seen from all kinds of people.
Yes, this kind of atrocity should focus our attention on our values. They are our only sure bulwark against tyranny and injustice in the world. The bombers believe they are furthering their values by what they do. If we want to defeat them — and we surely must — our values must prove stronger than theirs.
Your words are important. I think we all need to remember that kindness is what is needed to stem the tide of anger and hate that still seems to affect people around the world.
mahalo Rosa
Rosa,
Your touching thoughts and Stacey’s quote are also echoed in a quote I posted on Friday for reflection –
You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. – Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)