montgomery scott

There were rumours that he died before but that time he was simply stuck in a transporter buffer feedback loop. Todays news though is sad, this time Scotty has truly gone.

Some trivia, have you ever noticed Scotty (James Doohan) had a finger missing and wondered where he lost it? It was at Juno Beach on D-Day, where as a Canadian officer he was hit six times by machine-gun fire! Scotty was an on-screen hero--while James Doohan was the real thing! Rest in peace Scotty--the universe will not be the same without you. Thanks James Doohan for putting it on the line at Juno--we owe you a lot!

the story of a street

One of the things I miss about London is the history. Read about the history of the street where the terrorists blew up the bus - that street gave birth to the nuclear bomb, it was home to Yeats and Dickens and it withstood the Blitz - read more (here).

don’t call them muslims

Another Londoner who gets it right, St Pancras parish priest Father Paul Hawkins:

"This is not a time for many words," he said in today’s sermon, urging his congregation to rejoice in the capital's rich diversity of cultures, traditions, ethnic groups and faiths. "There is one small practical thing that we can all do. We can name the people who did these things as criminals or terrorists. We must not name them as Muslims."Good on you Father Hawkins - because calling them "Muslim" or even "Muslim extremists" is wrong - I remember the IRA bomings in London and we did not call them "Christian extremists." Don't let the terrorists divide the diversity London is built upon.

Read the full story here

my hometown bombed!

With a death toll of 50 and climbing the worst ever terrorist attack just took place on London. But this is not the first and it will not be the last attack on my hometown; London has a long history of being rattled by bombs and yet Londoners have an equally long history of being unrattled by terror. London’s Mayor Ken Livingstone said it better than I could. Here is an extract from his speech:

I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.

That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith – it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I'm proud to be the mayor of that city.

Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life.
I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others – that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.

In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.

They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don’t want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.

Good on you Ken for saying it right! And good on you Tony Blair for flying directly back to London after the attack. And even the Queen (whose politics I usually wholeheartedly disagree with), good on you for visiting the injured in hospital just hours after the attack!

And London - next year when I return to England to visit my mom in Essex - I will catch a train into the city to say hello! So stick that in your pipe and smoke it you cowardly terrorist! May London long be a place where people come to be free, where people come to live the life they choose, where they come to be able to be themselves.

hope

I spent the long weekend at my cousin's cottage and I was given lemonade in this class. When I saw the motif I thought of my friend Jason who despite having a run of bad luck has not given up hope!