People are decorating the streets of Brussels with messages of peace

Please include the appropriate hashtag in future posts:

 

Why was it necessary for a passive-aggressive thread on a topic that already has a thread?

 

I didn't see a thread on the sidewalk chalking.

 

Sorry. Continue with your schtick.

 

Wow. Piss all over the place and I hadn't even clicked on the thread yet.

 

Oop! Jump in! The pool is warm and only slightly yellow.

 

The Blackhawks lit the ice like the Belgian flag before puck drop.

The NHL is coming out hard against blowing shit up and killing people.

 

Next some places might lower their flags to half-staff. As if it will stop a terrorist.

 

In 1914, on the eve of World War I, the Germans issued an ultimatum to Belgium -- let us roll through your country on the way to France or we will destroy and conquer you.
Both sides knew how any war between the countries would end. The Belgians were no match for the Germans.

Belgian King Albert I, however, told the Germans to get bent.
Upon hearing of the king's refusal of the ultimatum, the Belgian foreign secretary gave one if the great quotes of all time -- "If we are to be crushed, let us be crushed gloriously."
The Belgians fought, and lost, but put up more of a fight than anyone expected. They slowed the German advance for weeks instead of days and allowed France to mount its own defense.
It was one of the great acts of defiance against tyranny, in the face of impossible odds, in human history.

We've gone from that, to drawing chalk messages on sidewalks and lighting up buildings.

 

Didn't make the Germans think twice 26 years later, though. They went through Belgium like shit through a goose as they did an end-run around the Maginot Line.

 

Lovely photo, and an important message: