When Terror Is At Your Doorstep

I want to talk to you about fear. The kind that paralyzes you when, in the midst of a working day, you hear ambulances from outside the window, and everyone's phone starts beeping with Breaking News alerts, saying 5 people were stabbed, only two streets away, by a terrorist with a screwdriver.

This is when fear takes over, after a week of horror, with back-to-back terror attacks, when it happens right outside your window. First, you make sure everyone you know (and who live nearby) is okay, and not planning on walking home alone. Then, you wish your co-worker, as they leave the office to go home, to “stay safe,” instead of “have a lovely weekend.” And you can't work, and you can't think, because what you read about in the newspaper just got real.

You think about the dozens of families who lost their loved ones, who were merely walking down the street, in seconds. Their whole world turned upside down. And you can't help but think: “what would it be like if tomorrow, it's me, or someone I know?” You want to console, but you can't find the words, so you turn outside, trying to use every little bit of online power you have, to spread the word and make sure people know what's been happening here, so that they can put pressure on their leaders to stop encouraging terrorism by keeping silent.

Sadly, it doesn't happen. The attacks do get global coverage, but the kind that no one would be okay with if it happened in his or her country. “Palestinian shot dead after terror attack killing two.” (True, but what did he do to deserve being killed?! Maybe committed that terror attack?) “3 killed in attack” (An act of God? How were they killed? Who attacked them? Why?) And then, you hear that UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon