The sound of silence

My workplace is in north east London - you don't have to go too far down the road and you're in Essex - and today we all filed out at a few minutes to twelve and took over the pavement outside our offices. The usual rowdy lot stood quietly and respectfully, joining hundreds of thousands over the city doing the same.

The thing that really heartens me today is that this scene was echoed not only all over London and in other UK towns and cities, but also in France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Scandanavia, Malta, America, Canada, Bali ...

Our governments may not be perfect but we live in an imperfect world. I may not agree with my neighbour over the war in Iraq and our involvment or non-involvment in hundreds of other international issues but I accept that because I want to live in a democracy. There are no easy answers but answers must be found.

Ken Livingstone said,
"When you see people standing around today you see that Londoners are Londoners first before they are Jewish or Christian or Muslim."

I look forward to a day when we can all be world citizens first.