WHAT YOU NEED NOW - CONTENT UPDATED THROUGH THE DAY
July 7, 2005
Reactions from HNN Staff, Contributors, to London Terror Attacks
by David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
Hinton, WV (HNN) – In the wake of the July 7, 2005 multiple terror attacks in London, HNN contacted staffers and contributors for their recollections of London and reflections on the attacks which have resulted in at least 40 deaths and hundreds of injured as of this posting. I welcome additions to this admittedly hurried effort. Contact me at davidkinchen@hotmail.com with your contributions.
HNN Editor David M. Kinchen visited London in September 1979 on his first trip to Europe. "To an English major – I had been out of college18 years at the time – the trip – the start of a tour of England and Scotland – was a delight, the culmination of a desire for many decades. Liz and I stayed at a hotel near the King's Cross railway station, one of the July 7, 2005 terror sites and in an apartment in the Ivory House at St. Katharine Docks, one of the areas heavily damaged by German bombs during World War II. We marveled that everything in London looked just like the movies and the pictures we had seen. This reaction was similar to my first trip to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, before we moved there in 1976. In those days, terror threats to London came from the Irish Republican Army. It's important to remember that Islamist terror organizations were allied with the IRA and other European terrorist organizations on the continent. By targeting London's transportation network – buses and the Underground – London's subway – the terrorists are following the same pattern they used in suicide attacks against Israel. These Islamofacists can't stand democracy in any form, in London, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Paris, New York or Madrid or Baghdad, for that matter. My heart goes out to the brave residents of this wonderful city."
Stephen N. Reed, a former Charleston radio talk show host and HNN commentator and columnist: "London is like so many of our cities here in America–open and vulnerable to this kind of attack. I've been to London twice, once in 1982 and again in 1989. Both times during the summer, like it is right now. Summer in London can be hot, crowded on the buses and underground, with the combination of Londoners going to work and so many tourists from all over. That the people there had to endure this both right after their city received the positive news about hosting the Olympics and during a typical morning's rush hour will make for a doubly depressing situation for them. It will be interesting to see if the British people rally around Blair and Bush more now, or if they will be so worried that they will seek some kind of accommodation. Let's hope the spirit of Londoners during the Battle for Britain in 1940 against Hitler will prevail. I think it will. The Islamic extremists may have managed to rouse the best self–defense instincts of the British–again."
Timothy Burbery, associate professor of English, Marshall University: "Incredibly, when I got your email I was at work on a book chapter on [John] Milton's "Samson Agonistes," a play based on the biblical Samson. As you know, some regard the Hebrew judge as a terrorist, since he killed thousands of Philistines who were celebrating his capture. I'm making the argument that Milton's Samson is NOT a terrorist, since Milton goes to some lengths to show – and not merely claim – that his Samson is divinely motivated. Furthermore, Milton takes pains to indicate that Samson's feat is, in a sense, a 'precision' strike, one that kills merely the Philistine fat cats, while sparing the hoi–poloi standing outside the temple ... In any case, my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. I have some in–laws in London, and will need to find out if they're OK."
