OKay, so this isn't related to OU - except that I'm an alum.

Sense of community. One result - benefit - of traveling is feeling a sense of community - closeness - when something happens in a country or city that you've visited. Perhaps you've experienced that sense of community. For me I felt it again on learning about the slaughter on and around London Bridge. I've walked that bridge. Or last year's slaughters in Paris at Charlie Hebdo and the nightclub. I have friends - Gerard and his wife Benedicte - who live near both of those places. Four of my family's ladies visited those friends in their home last December. Way back when while soldiering in Korea, North Korean soldiers slaughtered four nuns. I still can see those nuns' lifeless bodies. Whenever something happens in Korea - I've since returned to that country 3 times - I feel that sense of community or closeness. It is a welcome feeling.

Understand what you are saying, Mike, and the emotions you are experiencing. My wife and I arrived in London on 7/7/2005, the day of the Tube Bombings. Brits now refer to that day as just "7/7" -- much as we say "9/11." We arrived at Gatwick Airport that morning and took the above ground Victoria Express to our hotel. When we got to the hotel we saw everyone looking at the TV on the wall. At that point the official government story was that problem was a series of "power surges" on the tube. The TV was on SkyNews, who got much credit in the next few days for being the first major media outlet in the UK to abandon the government story and to declare that this had to be terrorism. I remember one of the reporters saying that it was just not believable that four separate "power surges" had occurred in diverse parts of the tube system one right after another. The BBC, on the other hand, stuck with the official story for hours, and two days later was raked over the coals by The Times for its blind adherence to the official story. As it turned out we had literally been on the above-ground Victoria Express at the very time the bombs were going off on the underground. At any rate, whenever I hear a story about one of these terrorist attacks (particularly the ones in the UK), I harken back in my mind to 7/7. Seeing the armed police on the street now on the TV gives me flashbacks. Getting to Mike's point, I remember the sense of community we felt with our British Friends and two special relatives who did their best to make our stay in their country the best it could be in such circumstances. And, these British cousins were very helpful in getting messages for us back to our family on this side of the pond to let them know that we were OK. The internet was out in central London for several hours, and they called and/or emailed our family back in the USA. It is interesting that how going through this kind of experience together does increase a sense of bonding and community.

Well said Mike, RS Bobcat, Ohio Cat Fan and Jeff. Our nation goes through fits and spurts of division and community/togetherness, and one never quite knows when one ends and another begins.

9/11 brought us together,but it didn't last.

Personally I think Social Media and the media in general could undermine us,even if we were attacked.

If we had the same media coverage in WWII we have to today,we would have been told that "D-Day" was a disaster and the war was lost.
Same with a lot of the island campaigns in the Pacific.

http://www.espnfc.com/international-friendly/story/314316...


Good stuff. (Unfortunately, not sure it means too much.)

As it should. Suddenly these folks may be coming to the realization that rich white men aren't immune from the craziness of the world and that they need to govern for all not just the pocketbooks of their friends and donors.

Everybody, on both sides of the aisle, will say the right thing for a day or two - perhaps a week or two. But it'll be back to normal before the month is over.

What's frightening about this situation is that without those two Capitol Policemen there would have been about a dozen dead GOP congressmen. I don't think the shooter anticipated any law enforcement presence. This came so close to being the worst assassination in U.S. history that it's scary. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember any mass assassinations in our history. This certainly should make some folks rethink their rhetoric. The climate in Washington, D.C., is toxic right now. It's really hard to tell if that rhetoric had much to do with the actions of this nut, but it certainly didn't help, and it sets a background where these kinds of things seem more acceptable. In the last few months we've had several "mock assassinations" of one variety or another of President Trump. While that's protected under the First Amendment, it certainly adds absolutely nothing to a positive national dialogue. It's the exact opposite of what's been talked about in this thread -- trying to build a sense of community. If we could only try to emphasize points of agreement and be willing to compromise a little bit to build consensus, we all be a lot better off.

Could it also be said that Trump's words and actions during the election and since his inauguration, while protected by the First Amendment, adds absolutely nothing to a positive national dialogue? If so, could it also be said that his words/actions are the exact opposite of what's been talked about in this thread?

Interesting to read that one of my classmates put his skills to use stopping the bleeding. Graduate of St X high school in Cincy, X and returned home to open his practice in downtown Cincy. Great guy, good skills, closed the office at noon each day to attend Mass. He is a veteran and was voted into office.

Looks like he still has a pretty cool demeanor. http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/14/health/brad-wenstrup-steve-...

Same basic pun, but I would have gone with toehold