Horrific terrorist act

[Guest guest]

We were shocked friday evening to learn of the horrible terrorist attacks in Norway, with a bombing in the government district of the Norwegian capital, Oslo, and a shooting at a youth summer camp on the Utøya island, seemingly linked. And even more shocked when we woke up early Saturday morning to the news that the death toll was then over 80, and still rising (when we went to bed on Friday they were still talking about 6-7 dead, as of right now 93 people are confirmed dead, about 80 of them kids from the summer camp, but about as many are hospitalized, and several people are still missing, so the death toll is likely to keep rising for a while more). The police are searching the water around the summer camp island for bodies, because many of the kids/teens jumped in the water and tried to swim to safety when the gunman, dressed as a police officer, started to take them out one by one, and it's believed that some of them drowned in that attempt. I really just can't fathom the coldblooded shooting of those kids, and yet it's in line with what right wing/neo-nazi groups have done before in Scandinavia (although, not on this scale, I believe). In fact, I said when we heard the news, that the bombing in Oslo could be just about any group, it's a very generic terrorist act, so to speak, but the shooting of the kids on the island summer camp has "nazi" written all over it. I myself was, as a teenager, the chairman of a youth group that was targeted by nazi terrorism in the early 90's, and that's where my mind has been going this weekend, of course. Memories of the sheer terror (very apt word) involved in escaping a building about to be bombed, hoping to God not to be discovered by the perpetrators on the way out, all of a sudden very vivid again. And, of course, also a feeling of gratitude about the unbelievably happy ending that, despite it all, was granted to us, compared to the outcome for the kids on the Norwegian summer camp island this past friday. You have probably read/seen the news about it already, but if not, the CNN coverage can be found at: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/24/norway.terror.attacks/index.html?hpt=hp_t1love/Reb