There is nothing that is comparable, or as important, as flesh and blood. It is all we are on Earth. Our bodies are the vessels of all we possess. There is no ideology, no argument, no reasoning that can obscure the reality of our own limbs. And some of our neighbors have lost theirs.
To the world watching Boston now, we will accept your compassion. We seem to be have enough blood right now — though there is always reason to give; we have excellent medical staff taking care of the wounded. The wounded will need care, love, and assistance in the days, weeks, and years going forward.
What we don’t need is bloodlust; co-optation; score-settling; pointed speculation; and I-told-you-so. What happened yesterday is not a symbol-of-something, it is something. The folks who were hurt or rattled are not means to an end, they are the ends themselves.
I remember September 11th well. And I remember thinking at the time that it would be exploited by all kinds of bad-faith operators for their various gain. We know what came out of that. After a good start of heroism, sanity and equanimity in the immediate aftermath, our fear and thirst for revenge was exploited to unrelated ends.
Let us remain focused on our own healing, on supporting the well-being of the wounded among us, and on the simple finding and imprisonment of the culprit(s). Maybe we won’t “ever be the same”. But we should damn well try. To me, that is courage.
I find myself agreeing with John Cole:
The only thing we “need” to do is find the perpetrators, try them, convict them, and jail them for the rest of our lives as we go on with ours, and I have full faith that our collected government agencies can do this.
Next year there will be another Patriot’s Day. There will be another Boston Marathon. We will not give up, we won’t live in fear … and we won’t be used.
SomervilleTom says
We don’t need more “security” at next year’s Boston Marathon. We need less, not more, armed police walking around with automatic weapons. We don’t need more episodes of detaining and searching the persons and homes of wounded victims because they look Muslim. We don’t need even more searching of knapsacks on the MBTA — unless there is evidence that they contain pressure cookers.
We don’t need more sanctimonious media talking-heads cluck-clucking sentimental trash about the awful pain of victims — we’ve already had enough victim-porn. Let those who have suffered grievous losses mourn, console, and grieve in private — please.
Precisely.
jconway says
There has NOT been a Middle Eastern suspect, it turns out the man questioned whose home was searched is a victim of the attack. So let’s stay calm folks and don’t let the Murdochs and Faux News stir us to regrettable conclusions.
fenway49 says
Which had two “scoops” yesterday turned out to be wrong. First, that this poor man was a suspect. Second, that 12 people were killed. I’m very happy we didn’t have any more death than we did. It’s bad enough as it is.
SomervilleTom says
A victim of the attack was harassed by police even before being treated. His home was searched as well. I suggest that this man is a victim of not only the attack, but the bigotry and fear that a decade of hysteria about “Muslims” has produced.
He deserves a formal and highly-publicized apology at a minimum.
Ryan says
to let the experts look at what happened and see if there are reasonable ways to make people safer, without sacrificing the spirit of the event or our civil rights. For example, if trash bins can be used to conceal weapons, perhaps we should move toward transparent bins?
If there are things we can learn about today, we should learn them.
dcsohl says
Or even no bins. My wife was a student in London in the 90s, and there were no public trashcans anywhere. You carried your trash with you and when you got home, you threw it out.
Another alternative would be to use bins kind of like the solar-powered compactors that you see sometimes… with a small opening so you can’t get a pressure cooker in there, and with a solid construction that could withstand the blast created by any sort of bomb that could fit.
Bob Neer says
Well said. Blogs have a responsibility to keep an eye on the corporate media as they attempt to exploit this tragedy for their own purposes. That will start in due course.
oceandreams says
“If you think you’re going to change the culture here, you really picked the wrong town. We’re not going to change, we’re not going to suddenly give up our civil liberties.” More at WBUR
jconway says
Colbert
mike_cote says
Stephen said something like, “You think these people are going to change? They lived through the big dig and traffic jams that lasted for 16 years. Some Bostonians are only just now getting home from driving!”