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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2016-06-15
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3W4pLOTXybI
uhhuh I could never have imagined the nineteen year old suicide bomb the me valuable lessons did he taught me to never presume anything about anyone you don't know on a Thursday morning in July two thousand and five the bomber and die unknowingly boarded the same train carriage at the same time standing apparently feet Palmer's I didn't see him actually I didn't see anyone you know not
to look at any one of the two but but I guess he saw me I guess he looked at older box as his hand hovered over the detonation switch I've often wanted what was he thinking especially in those final seconds I know it was a personal he didn't set out to kill or maim me Jill Hickson it he didn't know me known instead he gave me
an unlocked warranted I did unwanted label I had become the enemy to him I was the other good for them as opposed ox the label enemy allowed him to dehumanize us it allowed him to push that person and he wasn't selective twenty six precious lives were taken in my carriage alone and I was almost one of them in the time it takes to drool repressive we
were plunged into darkness so immense that it was almost tangible what I imagine wading through Tom might be like we didn't know who with the enemy we would just a bunch of commuters who minutes earlier had followed the cheap Mexican no direct eye contact no talking absolutely no conversation but in the lifting the darkness we were reaching out we were hoping to each other we were
calling out own names a little bit like a local waiting for responses until I'm here I'm alive okay Jill his a live didn't know who Alison but I listened for her chickens every few minutes I didn't know riches but it mattered to me that he survived all I shared with them it was my first name they didn't know that I was the head of the department
at the design council and here is my home beloved briefcase also rescued from that morning they didn't know that I published architecture and design journals but I was a fellow of the Royal Society bots that I wore black %HESITATION studio album that I smoked sick cigarillos I don't smoke cigarillos anymore I drank gene and I watched Ted toolbox of course never dreaming but one day I
would be standing balancing on prosthetic legs giving a tool I was a young Australian woman doing extraordinary things in London and I wasn't ready for that %HESITATION to end I was so determined to survive that I used my stuff to tie toward a carries around the tops of my legs and I just shot if we think and everyone out focus to listen to myself to be
guided by instinct alone I lowered my breathing race I elevated my thighs I held myself upright and life for the urge to close my eyes I held on almost an hour an hour to contemplate the whole of my life up until this point perhaps I should've done more perhaps I could have lived more seem more maybe I should've gone running Danzig taken up yoga but my
priority and my focus was always my work I lived to work who I was on my business card Matt to to me didn't matter down in that tunnel by the time I felt that Foust touch from one of my rescue is I was unable to speak unable to say even a small word like chill I surrendered my body to them I've done all I possibly could
and now I was in their hands I understood just who and what humanity really is when I first saw the ID tag that was given to me when I submitted to hospital I don't read one unlearn estimated female one unknown estimated female those four words well my gift what they told me very clearly was that my life was saved purely because I was a human being
difference of any kind made no difference to the extraordinary links but the rescue was prepared to go to save my life to save as many unknowns as they could and putting their own lives at risk to them it didn't matter if I was ritual pull the color of my skin with his male or female by sexual orientation who I voted for whether I was educated if
I had a faith well no faith at all nothing mattered asa I woes human I see myself as a living fact I am proof that unconditional love and respect can not only save but it can transform lives he was a wonderful image of one of my rescue was Andy and I taken just last year ten years after the event and here we are on a noun
throughout all the chaos my hand held tightly my face stroked gently did I feel I felt love what's shielded me from hatred and wanting retribution what's given me the courage to say this ends with me slow I was left I believe potential for widespread positive change is absolutely enormous because I'd knows what were capable of I know who the brilliance if humanity so this leaves me
with some pretty big things to ponder and some questions first old I consider is what unites us not file greater than what could ever divide does it have to take a tragedy or a disaster for us to feel deeply connected as one species human beings and when will we embrace the wisdom of our era to rise above me a tolerance and move to an acceptance for
