"This is the Norwegian way..........We need to carry this out in a dignified manner."

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Half Norwegian here, too, and I was IN NORWAY the weekend of the attacks

The dignified sorrow of the country was impressive and moving.

I accidentally got caught up in a 150,000-person memorial march the Monday after the shootings and the bomb attack, which were on Friday. All those people marching silently from the Oslo city hall to the parliament building, holding flowers.

The morning paper carried a headline quoting the Crown Prince: "Last night the streets of Oslo were filled with love." (I read Norwegian well enough to understand to understand simple sentences like that.)

The following day, I happened to be in the area of the city hall again, and several dozen tough-looking motorcyclists were assembling there. I asked one of them what was happening, and he replied that they were going to have a silent procession in honor of the victims. As I watched, they quietly got into formation and took off.

An unforgettable experience--and so different from the way Americans would have handled such a situation.