Today is a strange day in world events. Yesterday, London was nominated as the site of the 2012 Olympics, an honor that brings prestige, recognition and great economic opportunity to the city. Today, tragic, co-ordinated terrorist attacks killed cloe to 50 people, wounding everyone in London and around the world.

Across the Atlantic, at the site of the terrorist attacks in New York City, the new 'Freedom Tower' is near completion (photo at right). It's a time of hope and fear, progress and loss.

In the online communities of the world, we have what is possibly the greatest hope for moving forward, past fear and intolerance and into a framework of coordination and prosperity through friendly relations made all over the world. As I look through the list of locations my fellow SEOs come from, that list is as exhaustive as the world itself. There are SEOs in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Great Britain - every continent in the world is represented at forums like SEW & SEOChat.

What's so amazing about these communities is that it fosters care and breeds out ignorance - the source of fear and ultimately of hate. Once you know someone who's from a different religious, political, geographical, ethnic or sexual group than your own, it's no longer as easy to fear or hate them or even to lump them together as one. Even though the connections we make in web forums may seem tentative and shallow, they are in fact binding us all into one - a worldwide community that acknowledges one another's shared traits and respects the value of their differences.

On a day filled with tragedy, it may seem awkward to suggest that SEO Forums can help, but the truth and evidence is there. So, I urge you to go to the forums today and take a look at the little box noting where the person you're chatting with is from - think about their life and culture and differences and imagine yourself as their friend. It's not much, but it's a little something we can all do to make a big difference.