March 22, 2017

While sifting through current events earlier this week and scrounging for notable and salient happenings in domestic or foreign legislature, I was coming up a little short on finding something so prominent and pressing that I found interesting to write about. Of course there was the onset of a new health care bill, some more very professional and mature tweets from President Trump, some court decisions, and more information regarding the immigration ban and Russian hacking allegations. However, this morning, the morning of March 22 2017, what I and the world needed to address became painfully clear. At 2:40 pm, on the streets of England's capitol outside the House of Commons, police were called to address a horrific incident. This incident, immediately taken as a serious terroristic threat, claimed the life of at least 5 people and tragically injured at least 40. Myself, and the rest of the world stood in support and solace with London and awaited updates on the situation as they became available. After a day of piecing together updates and interviews from UK local news sites in close proximation to the event, the world is left with grief and sadness for the victims, as well as many questions and a legitimate fear for the unknown landscape of our globe with frequent small-scale terroristic attacks.

I say small-scale lightly, because there is nothing small about the nature of any terroristic violence and what it is truly intended to be: an attack on democratic ideals and the safety we have so long attempted to attain and preserve. The attacker, driving a car which was hired last Thursday in Birmingham, mowed down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge at an unprecedented speed prior to crashing into a gate of Houses of Parliament. The initial reckless crash impeded catastrophic injuries to about 40 bystanders caught in midst of a unexpected and unprecedented attack on what started out as a normal day in London. The terrorist himself, armed with two knives, fatally stabbed a policeman named as PC Palmer, who was a 48 year old courageous responder, husband, and dad. Attempts to revive him were fruitless. On the scene, the assailant was then shot by police and died eventually in the hospital. The events taking place on the streets of London put Westminster on lockdown and had those in the House of Commons for the session of Parliament which was currently underway at the time of the attack locked down for 5 hours.

These small-scale attacks are dark and senseless, and usually leave the world with more questions than answers. Sadly, lone-wolf attacks are becoming normalized and more frequent on the global stage. In the wake of any attack such as today, which is ironically the anniversary of the attack on Brussels, people are quick to blame and point fingers and further a divide amongst humans. The recent line of terrorists attacks on the basis of Islamic beliefs is wrongly accrediting inhumane, senseless killing to a peaceful religion- merely a coward scapegoat for extremism. Terrorism has no religion, knows no boundaries, and has no place in our world. Terrorist attacks have vastly shaped many aspects of our everyday lives, the majority of our foreign policy, and perhaps most importantly; our views about those who are different from us. Our views on an entire religion based on a portion which practices lawlessness and evil. 

The war on terror shapes our globe and puts a face to our security fears, and the attack on London confirms recent conclusions about different levels of risk around the world. According to an article for the Daily Mail UK,  London is at greater risk of a terrorist attack by Islamic extremists than New York or Washington."London has become the pre-eminent terrorist target in Western Europe," said Jake Stratton, research director of the Control Risk Group's 2004 RiskMap report.

World leaders and people from all walks of life come together in the face of tragedy and horror. The Prime Minister spoke about the attacks, and responded with deep sadness as well as determined triumph: "The values our parliament represents - democracy, freedom, human rights, the rule of law - command the admiration and respect of free people everywhere. Any attempt to defeat those values through violence and terror is doomed to failure. Tomorrow morning, Parliament will meet as normal. We will come together as normal. And Londoners - and others from around the world who have come here to visit this great City - will get up and go about their day as normal. They will board their trains, they will leave their hotels, they will walk these streets, they will live their lives. And we will all move forward together. Never giving in to terror. And never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart." Theresa May's message is a model of perseverance in trial and a promise to uphold democratic ideals despite efforts to destroy them.