Editorial: Resilience shows on terror day

The Sydney Siege was an attempt to break us - 'but we won't be broken'.

Australia and all peace-loving countries in the East and West were held to ransom this week.

How bizarre that a major city like Sydney could be locked down under siege because of the actions of a man with mental illness, a criminal past and a half-formulated ideology. It is even more unreal that the rest of the world looked on in fear and trembling that this was finally it - the end of the world as we knew it.

Well, the reality is that the world as we knew it ended with 9/11. The day the Twin Towers came down was the day that every single peace-loving person felt fear like never before. On that day it seemed like nothing would ever be good again. But it was, sort of.

When we had stopped fearing a little bit and stopped grieving, we began waiting for the next big one. Osama bin Laden's execution eased the worry a little, but the emergence of the ruthless beheaders, Isis, took things to a different level. They are like al-Qaeda on steroids.

The warnings were that one day they would move out of the Middle East and target countries that were waging war against them.

This seems to be happening. The scary thing is that we are not talking about a highly-trained, effective terrorist group capable of planning the ultimate act of destruction. Isis will take any loony out there who wants to align themselves with the group, as long as the mayhem is widespread and the trauma absolute.

This week's act of terrorism was a case in point. It was a low-technology, high-impact act of terror.

If panic and fear were what was intended, they were achieved. But does this mean we must stop living our lives? No. We cannot live in fear. Despite the tragedy and despite the disruption, the people of Sydney showed a resilience and a strength that is hidden in most of our communities.

When the time comes, we may be harmed, but we won't be broken.