#norway attacks

This is for the kids on Utøya.

So. It's this date. Two years ago on July 22nd, 77 people were murdered here in Norway by one man. 8 were killed by a bomb. 69 were killed at Utøya, a small island that has been used as a camp for the Labor Youth (a political youth party attached to the Labor Party) for decades. It was an attack on the multicultural, tolerant and open society Norway strives to be - though of course, we also have our issues to deal with and things we could do better. It was an attack on my beloved, tiny Norway - the country I was born in, crew up in, was shaped by and love like any other member of my family. It's not perfect - but it's my country. What happened was also personal to me. My mother works in the government district where the bomb went off. She went home early that day to watch Tour d'France. If she hadn't, if the bomb had been placed earlier in the day... Who knows. She knew people who died. And every day for the next months, she had to walk by the place where they died. And then there is Utøya. I was a member of the Labor Youth when I was younger. I've been to the camps, to the meetings, to Utøya. I know people who died there. I know people who survived there. Those I knew who died were young, passionate, hopeful, determined to change the world for the better. We are diminished by the loss of them. Those who lived, must now live with a trauma I can understand only a little of. Most of those Breivik killed were very young. One was two days past her 14th birthday. One 10-year-old boy got to see him father shot to death in front of him. Those who survived will be a strength to us, but they will pay a price for it. Yet in all this grief, there is something good. The reactions after the attacks were those of love, support, roses and quiet marches covering cities in roses. As one survivor said it afterwards (quoting another memeber of the Labor Youth): 'If one man can show so much hate, think how much love we could show, standing together.' So on this day, and all days - don't forget the power we have to do good together, even when we witness such terrible acts. Perhaps especially then.

May the survivors live a happy life and the deceased rest in peace.