Stop political discussions please, they are out of place and moment

Living in Spain and in Madrid I thought I had to share with you how the ambience is now.

Yesterday 2,300,000 persons took Madrid's streets (can you imagine Plaza de Colón filled, and a sea of people covering all the streets from Colón to Plaza de Cibeles, to Plaza de Neptuno and Plaza de Atocha? can you imagine all the streets heading to Pl. Colón filled with people?). Yesterday 11,400,000 persons all over Spain took the streets.
1,500,000 in Barcelona
700,000 in Sevilla
500,000 in Canary Islands
400,000 in Zaragoza
400,000 in Vigo
400,000 in Málaga
350,000 in Cádiz
350,000 in Oviedo
300,000 in Bilbao (the Basque Country)
300,000 in Murcia
180,000 in Baleares
150,000 in La Coruña
150,000 in Extremadura
120,000 in Jaén
100,000 in Vitoria (the Basque Country)
100,000 in San Sebastian (the Basque Country)
100,000 in Logroño
85,000 in Cantabria
85,000 in Pamplona, Valladolid and Santander
65,000 in Orense
40,000 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Lugo
35,000 in Ceuta (half the population)
30,000 in Melilla (half the population)

But also in Europe:
6,000 in Brussels (Belgium)
2,000 in Paris (France)
2,000 in Berlin (Germany)
1,000 in Lisbon (Portugal)
1,000 in Ginebra (Switerland)
1,000 in Helsinki (Finland)
300 in London (United Kingdom)

And all over the world:
800 in New York (USA)
500 in Washington (USA)
Mexico, Peru, Honduras, Beijing,...

Think about it: We knew that by attending the demonstrations we were an easy target for another terrorist attack; everybody commented it. But people went; the metro was filled of people (to the point that some exits near Pl. Colón were blockaded and people couldn't get out of them), lots of parents with their kids (even babys of less than 1 year old). It was raining heavily, people was wet, but they were there.

Between my family and my friends only my grandmothers (99 years-old and 93 years-old) didn't attend.

Those who know Spain know that we don't easily show signs of patriotism. Yesterday most people worn a spanish flag with a black ribbon. I can see from my room various buildings, and people has hang spanish flags and white flags with black ribbons.

I don't know anyone who has not cried in the past two days. People is sad. Yesterday a friend of mine almost started to cry in front of me. I have cried.

But people is equally determined not to let this alter our lives, we will face terrorism (no matter it is ETA or Al-Qaeda) and will defeat it.

Tomorrow we have legislative elections, and will go massively to vote. They won't destroy our democracy.

It is incredible the support we have received from all over Spain and abroad. Very impressive. We have just to see this same Board with more than 200 posts. We can only be thankful.

From Madrid

Fernando

Thankyou for putting the focus back where it needs to be Fernando. People all over the world gathered yesterday, even here at the university of illinois, a university of only 36,000. We had a group yesterday gathered in silence for an hour of around 100 students including at least 50 spaniards (basques, madrileños, catalans, from everywhere), as well as students like myself who studied there and fell in love with the country, and many others who simply felt moved to do something. Know that we are behind you 100%.
Kelly

What are peacefull demostrations going to do. We need to start locking the doors to Europe so that these type of third world people stop coming in their garbage.

Quintos, I don't know why you are that sure it was Al-Qaeda.

Anyway, it is (in part) that "third-world garbage" who have died. A dozen moslems have died in the attacks, and 60 more are injured in hospitals. Most of the victims were workers, and a significant number of them were inmigrants.

I bet it was ETA, but I really don't care who was. They just deserve be in jail.

Fernando

ETA/ Al Qaeda working together mabey? I think its just Al Qaeda though. In less ETA is trying to set it up to make it look like Al Qaeda seems a little bite far fetched but possible.

You are right Fernando, now is the time to mourn those Madrileños that lost their lives as a result of the tragedy of last Thursday. Your loss Madrid is our loss.

I place myself in the shoes of those mothers who had to identify the remains of their children, and it breaks my heart. That all the promise held in the lives of these 200 people ceased is unbelievable.

This is a time to mourn and to pray.

Fernando...your last posting was very moving and touched me. This is what we need right now, not insensitive ravings of quasi racism!

Quintos...Shame On You. Your comments are inappropriate and once again show your lack of maturity. Instead of whipping up fear and contempt for a group of people and suggesting to lock up Europe from the savages (my words) of the third world, try looking at ways of resolving issues without the need for hatred. Yes, Quintos...you may not think it is, but it's there, though you may not realize it or refuse to think of yourself as racist! Your comments on various issues on this board bear that out. Am I saying you're a racist? No, by no means, so please don't misconstrue my message. What Im trying to say is for you to be more aware of Your sensitivity towards others before you start throwing stones in the name of patriotism!

Let's stay focused on giving our support to the people of Spain and to the victims in this time of grief!

No im not a racialist many people in SOuthern European countries have their share of Arab blood but their not muslims this is along social lines not racial any way continue with your conversation ill stay out of it. I just thought it was important to clear that up. I guess my out right anger at muslims is partly due to my anger in 3/11 and the immagration policy which I dislike I dislike the political parties the EU they way they run things they way they import people from the Arab world on the basis money I dislike how the choices resulted in the death of Spaniards thats why im mad and I guess I have to have some on to blame am I not blaming the right people I guess I sound pretty arrogant though attack other people of a religion on this board while not mentioning much about the suffering and lose of life that has happened in Spain my condolences.

Quintos,
I though a night's rest would have helped organzied your thoughts, but apparently not. When you choose such an absolutist stance and lump all people together you come across as being incredibly naive and wholly inconsistent. Are not Basque terrorists Spanish? To a foreigner who has lost their child to ETA bombings, should he/she forever think that all Spanish are terrorists? Of course not! They can choose to use their intelligence to differentiate good from evil.

Why you don't do the same is a matter of choice--your choice. You are choosing the easy way out. It is so much easier to throw blanket statements around. Requires the intelligence of a gnat. Yes, let Spain kick out all foreigners. Notice the word ALL. No more tourism. No more technology transfer. No more international cooperation. No mroe cheap immigrant work force. But how far back do you want to go? Say an extra generation. There go another 10% of the population. Stupidity upon stupidity. Easy isn't it. Ultra easy to enforce. But the cost to Spain would be beyond belief: economically, politically and socially.

Soon after all the foreigners are gone and Spain is shunned by the world community and operates as a closed economy (an autarky), you will find, lo and behold, that terrorists and criminals will still exist and yep, they will all be Spanish.

I grew up near San Francisco and San Jose, which have incredibly high percentages of foreign national and foreign-born Americans. Our crime rate, despite free flow of guns, is lower than most European cities. Why? Our local culture is one of peace, tolerance and understanding. I feel in my heart Spain is just as welcoming.

I take it yours is the passion of youth, however mmisplaced). I know it can be hard to reason in times like these, but the truth is always in intelligent applications of analytical reasoning upon real data. It is hard, but act intelligently. Deal swiftly with those seeking to destroy Spain, but treasure all those who work 24/7 to improve Spain.

The people that helped to improve Spain were the Romans,Visigoths,Celts and Iberians the people that are coming now are they contributing an equal amount as the Romans and Visigoths and other Europeans of the past have done I don't think so.... I mean they sell pirated CD's I guess they provide cheaper music but can that compare to the architecture and culture that the Romans and other gave I don't think so. And yes the Arabs of the past contributed some things too but... They aren't Europeans we don't want an islamic Arabian Spain. Can Gypsie architecture compare to Roman architecture?!!

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=av_IC0DLgdDg&refer=top_world_news The people that did this were caught as usuall they are third world immagrants with of course Spanish papers.

And Alhomoda ask any Basque and I gurantee most of thme will tell you they are not Spanish.