Running a marathon through its streets has given me a bond with Chicago, whether I like it or not. (And as it happens, I don’t mind…). On a freezing morning a couple of days after the marathon, I went for a wander up Madison Avenue to the magnificent Chicago Tribune building, in search of a newspaper. You can read about it here. I continue to call in at the Tribune from time to time, via the web. Here’s yesterday’s editorial:
To The People Of London:
The battle against global terrorism that conjoins our nations on so many fronts has long been, in our belief, a fight to the death. It is all the more so as Friday dawns. We are profoundly sorry that you, who have given so much, so often, to this battle, now should shed more blood.
You have our compassion. You have our continued resolve. And as that battle rages, perhaps longer than many of us will live, you have our commitment: No appeasement, no retreat.
But we do observe, with uncharacteristic humility, that you need no advice on how to cope, certainly not from your excitable American cousins.
Instead, it is we who can learn much from you.
Even as Thursday’s carnage filled our screens, we saw the calm fortitude of your prime minister, Tony Blair, as he spoke important words-yes, from the G-8 leaders gathered in Scotland, but also from his heart: "Today’s bombings will not weaken in any way our resolve to uphold the most deeply held principles of our societies, and to defeat those who would impose their fanaticism and extremism on all of us. We shall prevail and they shall not."
As Blair spoke we thought we heard, from one of memory’s cobwebbed corners, the distant, gruffer voice of his predecessor, Winston Churchill, speaking via the BBC on July 14, 1940. The peoples of Europe would not be subjugated, he pledged, by Hitler’s gospel of hatred, appetite and domination: "Should the invader come to Britain, there will be no placid lying down of the people in submission before him, as we have seen, alas, in other countries. . [W]e would rather see London laid in ruins and ashes than that it should be tamely and abjectly enslaved."
Our own experience with global terrorism on the home front is limited to a single horrific morning in 2001. We have no concept whatsoever of the Blitz that Churchill’s words foretold-of bombers by the hundreds blackening your skies night after night for months on end, of loved ones torn from your families by the tens of thousands.
The goal then was to drive you from World War II-as perhaps the goal Thursday was to shake your commitment to exterminating as many of the nihilists as you can.
The Blitz did not break you. Hitler failed, as surely as Thursday’s far less frightful, less lethally equipped, band of killers will fail. We have seen, admired, the stoicism in your DNA.
We know, though, that there are those in many lands who yearn to shrink from this battle, as if there is some safe place for nations to hide from zealots who see democracy, economic liberation and civil rights for women as mortal threats to their agenda: hatred, appetite and domination.
There is not. London, like New York and Washington and Madrid, is a citadel of the West. To ply their murder spree, Thursday’s terrorists walked free in your midst, enjoying the openness, the liberties, of your society.
They will do so again, on your streets or ours. They will see transportation arteries for what they are: the lifelines that make our cities, our peoples, both prosperous and vulnerable.
As you move beyond this moment, we will watch and learn, knowing that the today we glimpse may well be the tomorrow for which we must prepare.
We also will know that no matter how long this battle lasts, no matter how many honorable nations join in this fight, one ally will be there at the end, secure that defeat was never an option.
We think we’ll be there too. And we will be, provided we never forget what a Churchill contemporary — you remember FDR — said about the only thing we have to fear.
I’m indebted to "Waapster" for pointing me in the direction of another missive, taking a slightly different line. This one comes from the London News Review.
July 07, 2005
What the fuck do you think you’re doing?
This is London. We’ve dealt with your sort before. You don’t try and pull this on us.
Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not going to work.
All you’ve done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don’t get rewarded for this kind of crap.
And if, as your MO indicates, you’re an al-Qaeda group, then you’re out of your tiny minds.
Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we’ve got news for you. We don’t much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We’ll deal with that ourselves. We’re London, and we’ve got our own way of doing things, and it doesn’t involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.
And that’s because we’re better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we’re going to go about our lives. We’re going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we’re going to work. And we’re going down the pub.
So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.
I think I like that one even more.
