IT ONLY TAKES A FEW

The first bomb went off outside my elementary school. The terrorists phoned someone and told them about a bomb being placed in a mail box one block away from the school that I attended. We only knew that they would not let us go home for lunch which was the normal place for lunch way back then. We sat in our classroom, wondering, anxious, starving and waiting to go to lunch. Then KABOOM!!! About an hour after that, we were allowed to head home.

The FLQ (Federation pour la Liberation du Quebec) were upset because they were living in a province that was 80% french speaking but the economic power was held by the 20% that were english speaking. I was one of the "Mon Dieu Anglaise".
These bombs and some bogus bomb threats continued to follow me throughout my high school years. Always placed in mail boxes and across the street from the school. You see I was lucky enough to go to Westmount High School in the city of Westmount. It served an area where the upper crust lived. I did not come from the upper crust, but this school was the closest to where I lived at a mere 3 miles away. I did not go home for lunch while attending this school, and for 5 years straight I ate a lot of Peanut Butter sandwiches. Our most famous student would have to have been William Shatner, aka, Captain Kirk. He was long gone on to Hollywood by the time I got to high school. We got so used to the bomb scares that it became routine. Every Wednesday afternoon we would just go home at lunch time because there was going to be a bomb scare event. It happened every Wednesday like clockwork so I am certain it was a student taking advantage of the situation.

Back then it could be said that these were "gentlemen terrorists". They always phoned in a warning first. There was only one death due to these bomb threats that I can remember. That very first one detonated while a man was trying to disarm the thing. After that the bomb squad got much better at their trade.

This part of my life comes to mind only because of the recent devastating earthquake in Pakistan. It is so easy for us all to readily blame an entire people's for the actions of a few. We hold such great grudges, like the Hatfield's and the McCoys. We believe Usama is hiding out somewhere over there and that people over there have been harboring him and holding dear his intentions. But we cannot and we should not blame them all, and I am happy to see that we are over there to lend a helping hand.

I pray to God that Usama and his cohorts have been dealt with and are finally laid to rest.