This afternoon during the running of the Boston marathon, two bombs had been exploded at Boylston Street right at the finish line. There have been about 50 wounded and two deaths. It is so sad that a sports event, a historic one for the city of Boston, their marathon is the oldest one that run in our country, was the target of deadly violence. My hubby and I had thought to drive into Boston after dropping the baby girl at school yesterday to spend the day walking around Boston, because today is Patriot’s Day, a state holiday, the only reason why we didn’t go was because I was feeling too exhausted and I wanted to get back home after dropping the baby girl safe and sound at her dormitory.
The news coverage right now is till in the preliminary stages of receiving, gathering and analyzing information so we are in for a long night of news coverage. So far no one group has come forth to claim responsibility so the speculation will soon begin. What makes me nervous is that here in this country we don’t do well with these types of attacks and often our response isn’t measured or commensurate with the level of attack. I told my hubby that however horrific this attack was and my heart goes out to the poor people who were simply minding their own business either walking in Boston, running the marathon or simply being spectators, our experience is sadly a weekly one for poor women and children in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. I know that the women and children in those countries are at risk from their own countrymen’s methods of fighting and also from the United States predator drone program. Despite our assurances that the drones are only used in surgical strikes there have been civilian casualties and too often they were school children.
Enough with violence, either guns or bombs, enough already. Vengeance and fanatical zealotry have no place in our world. My poor sister was traumatized by the mass shooting at a movie premiere of Batman last year and she wasn’t even there. What traumatized her was the sheer randomness of the violence and the setting,a crowded movie theater. I think that the bombing at the Boston marathon will be equally traumatizing for her, precisely because of the unpredictability and randomness of the violence and the setting. In both cases, one would have never thought that a movie theater or a marathon finish line would be targets for horrific wounding and killing of innocent people.
There is no reason, there is no logic and there is no sense to this.
