07-23-2011, 02:51 AM
Hi -
Just wanted to let friends and fellow model railroaders here know that I and my family all avoided the terrorist bomb in Oslo yesterday. I was at work, about 10 minutes subway ride north of the site of the explosion, and initially thought the huge boom it was a thunderclap, since it was a gray day and we were expecting rain.
I quickly learned otherwise, as colleagues started spreading the news to each other that the media was reporting a large explosion downtown.
But in an ironic way - we were not too surprised - everybody had been mentally prepared for an Islamic terrorist bomb eventually - since both of our neighboring capitals - Stockholm in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark had seen terrorist acts before, and since we have troops fighting in Afghanistan and planes bombing in Libya.
The initial reaction among colleagues was one of somewhat defiant scorn towards the assumed terrorists setting off a bomb after 3 pm on a Friday, in the middle of the vacation season, where the number of casualties at the government offices and businesses around the site would be far lower than what they would have been in many other places. I guess we were feeling mad that someone was trying to push us around, and determined that they would not succeed in terrorizing us.
But then, about an hour later, we got the news that a man dressed as a policeman was shooting at teenagers and young adults at the labor party youth summer camp at Utoya island in lake Tyrifjorden among the hills 20 miles or so NW of Oslo. Armed Police eventually assaulted the island, and the perpetrator was arrested shortly after that.
Then came the big shock. This was not an attack by Islamist fundamentalists.
Instead it was like Oklahoma City all over again. One of our own that had gone rogue - that had filled his mind with the insane hatred some preach against their own democratically elected government - a man who described himself as conservative christian, who probably hated the "socialists" and "traitors" who he felt was not tough enough on immigration, and who chose bullets and bombs instead of words and ballots as the way to try to change the mind of his countrymen.
As of this morning, police has confirmed that at least 84 children from age 13 up has been murdered at Utoya summer camp, and they are still searching for bodies, so the number may still go up. Several unexploded bombs has been defused by army explosive ordinance disposal specialists at Camp Utoya.
I am relieved that none of my closest family and friends were caught in the blast in Oslo - my sister-in-law and young nephew was showing some friends from abroad around town, but they had left the downtown area, and was heading for home on the freeway by the time the blast happened. And as far as I know, no close friends or family members had kids among the 500 or so kids at Utoya yesterday.
But I also know that we are a small people in a small country, and that every one in this country is likely to be no more than a few persons removed by kinship or by friendship from the families that were hit by tragedy yesterday.
As a fellow parent and fellow human, I feel heart broken at the thought of all the poor parents and siblings getting the news that their child or brother or sister has been murdered. I also feel pretty mad about those who choose to incite to hatred against their fellow citizens and fellow humans - those who fill and poison the minds of the mentally unstable with the idea that they need to "do something" in a violent way.
I'll stop now. And go figure out a way to display our two red, white and blue balcony flags - the Norwegian and the American - at half pole today, as a sign of sympathy towards those who lost loved ones yesterday.
Stein
Just wanted to let friends and fellow model railroaders here know that I and my family all avoided the terrorist bomb in Oslo yesterday. I was at work, about 10 minutes subway ride north of the site of the explosion, and initially thought the huge boom it was a thunderclap, since it was a gray day and we were expecting rain.
I quickly learned otherwise, as colleagues started spreading the news to each other that the media was reporting a large explosion downtown.
But in an ironic way - we were not too surprised - everybody had been mentally prepared for an Islamic terrorist bomb eventually - since both of our neighboring capitals - Stockholm in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark had seen terrorist acts before, and since we have troops fighting in Afghanistan and planes bombing in Libya.
The initial reaction among colleagues was one of somewhat defiant scorn towards the assumed terrorists setting off a bomb after 3 pm on a Friday, in the middle of the vacation season, where the number of casualties at the government offices and businesses around the site would be far lower than what they would have been in many other places. I guess we were feeling mad that someone was trying to push us around, and determined that they would not succeed in terrorizing us.
But then, about an hour later, we got the news that a man dressed as a policeman was shooting at teenagers and young adults at the labor party youth summer camp at Utoya island in lake Tyrifjorden among the hills 20 miles or so NW of Oslo. Armed Police eventually assaulted the island, and the perpetrator was arrested shortly after that.
Then came the big shock. This was not an attack by Islamist fundamentalists.
Instead it was like Oklahoma City all over again. One of our own that had gone rogue - that had filled his mind with the insane hatred some preach against their own democratically elected government - a man who described himself as conservative christian, who probably hated the "socialists" and "traitors" who he felt was not tough enough on immigration, and who chose bullets and bombs instead of words and ballots as the way to try to change the mind of his countrymen.
As of this morning, police has confirmed that at least 84 children from age 13 up has been murdered at Utoya summer camp, and they are still searching for bodies, so the number may still go up. Several unexploded bombs has been defused by army explosive ordinance disposal specialists at Camp Utoya.
I am relieved that none of my closest family and friends were caught in the blast in Oslo - my sister-in-law and young nephew was showing some friends from abroad around town, but they had left the downtown area, and was heading for home on the freeway by the time the blast happened. And as far as I know, no close friends or family members had kids among the 500 or so kids at Utoya yesterday.
But I also know that we are a small people in a small country, and that every one in this country is likely to be no more than a few persons removed by kinship or by friendship from the families that were hit by tragedy yesterday.
As a fellow parent and fellow human, I feel heart broken at the thought of all the poor parents and siblings getting the news that their child or brother or sister has been murdered. I also feel pretty mad about those who choose to incite to hatred against their fellow citizens and fellow humans - those who fill and poison the minds of the mentally unstable with the idea that they need to "do something" in a violent way.
I'll stop now. And go figure out a way to display our two red, white and blue balcony flags - the Norwegian and the American - at half pole today, as a sign of sympathy towards those who lost loved ones yesterday.
Stein
