Who Cares About Politics When Their Loved Ones Lie Dead?

If you twist and turn away
If you tear yourself in two again
If I could, yes I would
If I could, I would
Let it go
Surrender
Dislocate

If I could throw this
Lifeless lifeline to the wind
Leave this heart of clay
See you walk, walk away
Into the night
And through the rain
Into the half-light
And through the flame

If I could through myself
Set your spirit free
I'd lead your heart away
See you break, break away
Into the light
And to the day

To let it go
And so to fade away
To let it go
And so fade away

I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
Wide awake
I'm not sleeping
Oh, no, no, no

If you should ask then maybe they'd
Tell you what I would say
True colors fly in blue and black
Bruised silken sky and burning flag
Colors crash, collide in blood shot eyes

If I could, you know I would
If I could, I would
Let it go...

This desperation
Dislocation
Separation
Condemnation
Revelation
In temptation
Isolation
Desolation
Let it go

And so fade away
To let it go
And so fade away
To let it go
And so to fade away

I'm wide awake
I'm wide awake
Wide awake
I'm not sleeping
Oh, no, no, no ~U2

They played "bad" by U2 on the radio this morning, the extended version, and I nearly cried, if it had been the version of "sunday bloody sunday" from Rattle & Hum I would have cried. It's strange, even though it didn't even hit me particularly hard at the time. I find myself mourning every horror, not just this one enormous one. It's difficult not to think of all the terrorist acts that have gone on in my lifetime alone. I was much closer to the Lockerbie Disaster, or the shooting in Dunblane Elementary, the various IRA bombs of the past 20 years. The lone bomber who planted nail bombs in crowded areas three weeks in a row my first year in London.

I think what touches me the most is the incredible solidarity the US is showing in the face of such attacks. Not the gung-ho let's kill the arabs stuff, but the complete outrage and refusal to accept such acts of violence. Zero Tolerance. We need more of that back home. If there was the same outrage and horror at every IRA attack or retaliation against the IRA...maybe there wouldn't be a revolution any more.

People say a lot of things about the US and it's patriotism, many of them none to flattering, but what they miss is that this patriotism is about the people, the citizens, not the government, not about wealth, or politics, but about protecting the american people. That's a type of patriotism we need more of in the world. The kind that makes us all a family, no matter who our parents are. The United Kingdom could stand to learn a thing or two about how to handle terrorist acts if they only looked across the Atlantic. Of course, its' harder to sustain Zero Tolerance when the perpetrators are your neighbors and fellow countrymen. but think of what a villain Timothy McVeigh became, while Gerry Adams still has a voice.

So maybe it's not that appropriate to talk about Northern Ireland on a day that should belong to the United States, but it's the filter through which I see terrorist acts, it's the first thing I knew in that context, and after so many years it isn't getting any better. The people of my first country need to look around them and realise that if every single one of them stood up and refused to accept the death of innocents...maybe the innocents wouldn't get hurt so often.

"Fuck the Revolution. People are dying. That's not a revolution, that's murder."