There is only one, clear, sure reaction to the tragic explosions at the Boston Marathon yesterday. And that is to send our thoughts and prayers, our love and support, to all those caught up in this horrible experience.
As is usual with incidents of these kinds, news is bouncing all around. Sometimes stories will changes quite dramatically over the course of minutes, hours or days. That does not stop media and individuals from wildly speculating as to what happened and what it means. The human desire to make sense of the senseless is often overwhelming.
How many people were killed or injured is something that should come clearer very soon. The numbers have fluctuated some but they should solidify over the course of today. It does seem clear that one of the casualties was an eight year old boy, which just brings to the surface again the horrible shootings in Newton, or the "collateral damage" that is often seen in drone attacks or other acts of war.
The fact that the bombs were aimed low in such a way that so many of the injuries were to the lower extremities that is, the legs, seems doubly tragic. Deliberate or accident, it is ironic that it would occur at one of the nation's most prestigious marathons, an event centered on running and the power of the human legs.
Who would do such a thing? We just don;t know now. A terrorist, domestic or foreign, communicating God knows what message? A madman, another Joker-inspired lunatic? Someone with a grudge against runners or Boston or his ex-wife or whatever?
When will they be captured? It may be even happening as I'm writing this. Or it may take weeks and months of careful detective work, resulting in an arrest sometime down the road. Or we may never know, like we have no idea who sent the anthrax after 9/11 to the large (i.e., "liberal") media outlets and Democratic Senators on the committee about to hear the Patriot Act.
How could we have prevented this? This is where the media will go wild and spend weeks in analysis. Some suggestions will be helpful. Most will not. Giving up our freedoms in order to prevent things like this is making us lose the thing those who are against us most want us to give up.
So let us all come together to support those affected. That's the best we can do right now. The rest will be made clearer in the coming days. Hopefully.
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