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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Keep the candles lit for the victims of the terror attack but, don't forget to keep your heart burning for the right to freedom

When I went to bed last night, everybody of course already knew about the explotion that blew up the government building in Oslo Norway. They were also talking about 20 kids who were participating at the summer camp for the social democrats, or labour parti, being shot down at Utøya, a little island about 40 km from the capital.
Y it was the islamists of course. After all they are responsable for most terror atacks these days. But why? It was so hard to believe that it was really happening. In Israel or Egypt or even the United States, but in Norway? What could there possibly be to gain from attacking our peaceful prosperous neighbour?
Well, the morning came with the news that in fact it wasn't the muslims at all. The man responsable for the killing spree, was Anders Behring Breivik, a norwegian 32-year-old, with right-wing extremist preferences. A former member of a populist anti-immigration party , who described himself on his Facebook page as leaning toward right-wing Christianity. It's However hard to find anything christian about this morning's terible news. Over 500 kids had been hunted like animals during 2 nightmarish hours at the island and, 84 of them are dead so far. Along with the 7 who got killed in the bomb attack in Oslo.
The killer was dressed in a police uniform so as to be able to get close to his victims, who were trying to hide as best they could. A lot of them tried to jump into the water and swim to safety, but they were easy targets for the murderer with his automatic weapon. Police say that they may still be more bodies yet to be found in the water and, 9 kids are still missing.
Utøya, the name of a summer paradise, a place for creating wunderful memories to look back upon for the rest of your life.

It's hard to take in. I went to such camps myself as a teenager and, it's suppose to be a place for hanging out with old friends and, meeting new ones, A place for interesting activities and discussions during the day and, sneaking out of bed to stay up later than you're allowed to at night. Perhaps to go for a stroll with that cute guy or gal, and, maybe fall in love for the first time, or sometimes just for the fun of breaking the rules. Utöya, the name of a paradise...
Now it's the name of a massacre. A version of hell 2011, where new friends screamed and ran for their lives and, old friends fell and thrashed in agony. Where teenagers were forced to watch their first love die and, leave him or her behind to save themselves.

The name of a nightmare, Where children spent long hours of horror at a level that those of us who weren't there can't even begin to understand.
My heart goes out to the survivers who will have to live with these memories for the rest of their lives. I keep a candle lit for the dead and the wounded and, My thoughts are with them and their families tonight.
But I'll also keep my heart burning for freedom and the right to an open democratic society. We live in a part of the world where you have the right to belong to which political parti you want, you can go to which ever meetings you prefer, participate in any kinds of discussions and, walk down the street in a demonstration martch for what ever you may believe in, or you can go to a political summer camp to find others who think like you. This is also a part of the world where you could bump into the prime minister on the street or, at the store for that matter. All of that is part of freedom and, that's Something that the terrorists, whether they're organized or just lonely mad men and, no matter their idiology, will never be able to take from us, as long as we stand united.
"One person with belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests.", those were the murderers words on his twitter account. Lets prove to him and the rest of the world, that one person with a strong belief in evil, will never be equal to someone with an interest in doing good, much less a hundrad thousand. Evil will never take you as far as the interest in democracy, equality and, humanism!

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