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d*d,
The world is not a nice place. I know you don't need me to tell you this, especially not now, but just bear with me while I make my case starting here.
The thing is, people die every day, in a lot of cases quite a few more than who died in the London bombings and for less reason. Here in Canada, more people die on the roads every day due to drunk drivers, elderly drivers who can't control their vehicles, people who get behind the wheel while tired, people who can't stop fiddling with the radio etc. These deaths don't make headlines, but they're out there and they're no less meaningful to the families and friends of the victims. Innocent Iraqi civilians along with US soldiers are dying daily in Iraq. We hear abot the soldiers, but the civilian deaths are often relegated to little more than a footnote.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the final number of casualties due to the London bombing is approximately 80 dead with several hundred more injured to some degree. This is a terrible tragedy. Every one of those 80 victims had a family, friends, a job, pets, girlfriends, boyfriends, mothers and fathers. It's a terrible thing to occur and I don't mean to be disrespectful, but this sort of thing happens very single day all over the world. This leaves us with two options; either we can all fold up and go home, turn off all the lights, board up the windows and never come out again, or we can keep going, refuse to let the massive weight that is this truth drag us down. We can continue to live our lives in happiness and health. Humour helps us in that; it's a coping mechanism, a way of sharing the pain and making it bearable. Or as Robert Heinlein aptly put it, "we laugh because it hurts."
I'm sorry if I've offended you, it's most certainly not my intent. But what I hope you understand is that it's not out of disrespect that I make such comments, but more as a way of dealing with the overwhelming sorrow of it all. I'd be willing to put money on those EMT's you noted that are still hard at work and will continue to work hard every day in the losing struggle to save lives making jokes that would shock you, that would make the sort of comments I make seem completely innocent. I deal with the concept of it daily but they confront it face to face, which takes a sort of courage I do not and never will have. In that same vein, they make jokes because if you don't you'll quickly go insane.
Again, I don't mean to offend you or anyone else and I offer my sincerest apologies if that's occured. I just hope to help you understand that it's not slander and it's not that I don't care. After that, you're free to think of me as you will.
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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said
- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame
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