It’s been a busy week, and I haven’t been following the Boston thing as closely as I might otherwise have done. Like a true American I never let ignorance get in the way of my heartfelt opinions, but that doesn’t mean I want to write them down for people to mock when things go some other way entirely.
Still, things seem to be settling down and it’s time to get to the “lessons learned” part of our narrative. Alas, Claire’s already said it all.
Contrast the reaction between the marathon bombings and the tragic explosion in Texas. Which killed more? Which leveled more buildings? Which killed paramedics and EMTs who had rushed to help? And which was treated like a afterthought?
I don’t mean to minimize or dismiss the suffering of the bomb victims. What hell they’re forced to endure! What a barbarity they were struck with. And of course, the Boston disaster was a vile crime and there’s no evidence (far as I know) of a crime at that Texas fertilizer plant.
But what an excuse the marathon bombs gave the media-police-politics complex. Now they’re free to lay the groundwork for another ramp-up of the Homeland (Achtung!) Security state. And are we going to be in for it.
“And which was treated like a afterthought?”
I had the same thought several times in the last few days…
How many people died from criminal activity alone in the last week… most of the stories completely unknown to anyone but the community where they lived.
The endless orgy of “reporting,” pictures, interviews, speculation and so forth… not to mention the martial law insanity… And I looked at a lot of it until sometime late Saturday afternoon, then resolved not to torture myself with it anymore. But it was unavoidable until I went downstairs and did something else. I couldn’t sit here any longer.