Every action has a reaction

My sister burst into my bedroom this morning asking me if I heard what happened in London.

Half-asleep, I said, “what? Something happened?” I checked my alarm clock, 7:38 am. Yes, I like to sleep to the very last second before getting up for work.

“Turn on the news,” she said as she hustled out.

I flipped to CNN to see pure confusion in London. Bloodied people, a double-decker bus that looked like King Kong ripped it in two to see inside. I saw images of commuters covered in soot who were trapped underground in the subways.

And I said to myself: Damn. What the heck is going on?

What is the world coming to?

I sound like my mother, but you would think sometimes there is no safe haven. Everyone’s on edge ‘cause you don’t know when it’ll be your country’s turn for some terrorist action and you’ll be running from a burning building or trapped on an exploding subway train.

Someone on BlackPlanet said something very interesting… and very truthful: every action has a reaction. For years, countries of the Western world have invaded other nations and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Now, we’re seeing what it’s like on the receiving end.

But we’re dealing with a different type of terrorist/soldier – ‘cause, remember, after the U.S. blows up a small village in Iraq, those folks think that Bush and Co. and every fresh faced soldier in that platoon are terrorists. So who’s a terrorist depends on whether or not you’re standing in the rubble.

When you’re dealing with people who aren’t afraid to die, you’ve got a problem. If Prime Minister Blair can find and prosecute the people who bombed London today, great! He can arrest them and throw them in jail…

Unfortunately, there will be about a thousand or more people waiting to take over and be the next suicide bomber. Our countries need to think differently about why people – these “Islamic extremists” – believe that bombing innocents is the only way to incite change.

And why we think invading sovereign nations is OK, while bullies like North Korea's Kim Jong Il – who is plotting to put a nuclear bomb in Bush’s backside – run free.