one for sorrow

At least 7 dead in the city center of Oslo and at least 9 dead in the shooting at the Labor Party Youth Camp at Utoya Island (outside Oslo). The death toll is expected to rise, particularly for the island. Where young people were meeting because they wanted to change the way their country works. It was, in fact, an attack on democracy. That in itself hurts, but it doesn't--teenagers are dead. I don't care why, it only matters that they are. I can't. I'm in shock, I think.

A 32-year old white Caucasian male has been arrested. He did the shooting and apparently they think he had something to do with the bomb as well. So he first set the bomb, then drove out of the city and went to the island.

God, everything feels numb. I can't. This isn't. Fuck. Everyone I know is safe and accounted for, but oh. God.

ETA: According to the police, he belongs to a right-wing extremist group. I don't even know what to say about that, except, no, I do, because we have a party who likes to talk about the disintegration of Swedish values due to immigration, and who claim all Muslims are equally extremist (one of them tweeted "finally!" when the failed terror attack in Stockholm happened, because it was proof they were right, you see). Tell me, dear Sweden Democrats, tell me what kind of values this man represents? Tell me, how Norwegian do you think he is? Extremists are extremists. And fuck you.

ETA 2: 84 confirmed dead at the island. 84. That's 84 teenagers and people in their early 20's.

no

84 people dead at Utöya. No.

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead mean naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Through they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

—Dylan Thomas

On being a Social Democrat

Today, when at least 84 teenagers and young adults have been killed because they were at the Norwegian Labor Party's youth camp, I'm thinking about what Social Democracy in Scandinavia means, historically and now. Because what we have, Sweden and Norway (and Denmark, though these days they've given in to a right-wing bent in their immigration politics) so often gets cited as unbelievably liberal. And there are people who hate it. I'm going to write about Sweden for some of this, not because I want to "claim" this grief for us in any way, but because we share a historical background and approach. This will probably not be especially coherent, but I needed to write it.

The post includes mentions of two political assassinations as well as this weekend's mass murder, but just mentions, that is, statements of fact: they happened. This isn't a post about political assassinations or murders, this is a post about what inspires the fear and the hate: the unbending belief in a world where everyone has the same rights and the possibility of working towards that world through political change.

( this is something we built and this is something I love )