Living in fear

When my father was a young boy, every killing and waste of human life in the Gaza Zone was front page news and broadcast on TV and radio.
I never experienced such a broadcasting until September 11th 2001. That is when my whole life could have been upped, and I could have started living in fear.

In rapid succession did terror attacks follow throughout Europe. London, Madrid, then Paris and today, Brussels.
I was too young to really know what terror meant when New York was hit, London and Madrid as well, but it didn't stop my parents from bringing me to New York some three years later, and I even spent the anniversary for 9/11 in New York. It didn't stop me from going to London last year, and it hasn't made me fear going to either Paris or Brussels later this year.

I now fully know what terror means, and how it literally wrecks terror in your soul. My heart was crying, feeling torn apart when Paris was attacked in fall, and today, I have this somber feeling of being torn apart yet again.
I have friends in both Paris and Brussels, and the simple horror of finding them in the hot zone is a very uneasy feeling.
However, this will not stop me from going.

If I don't go, the terrorists will have won. If I don't go, it means they will have succeeded with their plan, and in my mind, I can't allow that.
I will not live a life in fear, and I will not let my plans wash down the drain because I couldn't follow through because I was too afraid.

When my father was a boy, news of killings in the Gaza Zone was reported effectively. Some odd 40 years later, they rarely get a spot on the news, and if they do, it's as other, daily news.
I hope and wish terror within Europe or any other place never become less important than it really is. We mustn't forget, and most of all, we mustn't live our lives in fear.

This is not a time to keep quiet - stand up, speak up. Today, however, my heart goes out to all of Belgium as it did to France in November.
Je suis Paris - je suis Bruxelles