The Boston Marathon Bombings and a Manhunt

Boston and the surrounding suburbs have been essentially shut down today for the manhunt of the remaining Boston marathon bombing suspect. I know I have readers in that area—please stay safe everyone! This sort of manhunt doesn’t happen all that frequently, and every time it does it makes me appreciate the role law enforcement plays in our society. My thoughts go out to the fallen officer.

Between the Boston marathon bombing and the fertilizer plant explosion, I’ve been glad that we don’t have a TV in our home (we have netflix and watch TV shows online)—I’m glad to be avoiding what I’m sure is wall to wall reporting on these tragedies. But I’ve also been impressed with humankind’s resiliency—when terrible things happen, we pick ourselves up, reach out a hand to others, and move forward through our pain.

Ever since the bombing on Monday I have been careful not to jump to conclusions about who the perpetrator(s) might be. It seems a lot of people immediately assumed that it was Islamic terrorism, but the reality is that there were lots of different sorts of people who might do something like this and lots of different motives for it. We have our own domestic terrorism problem, after all—Timothy McVeigh anyone?—and even foreign terrorism wasn’t something invented by Al Qaeda. Details are starting to emerge regarding the suspected shooters—it is being reported that they are Chechen—but it will take time for the full motives to come out. When things like this happen, I don’t think jumping to conclusions without the full evidence is healthy.

Another thing that’s been on my mind in all of this is Sally. I haven’t talked with her about any of this because she doesn’t appear to know it’s going on—without a TV, she’s not seeing coverage—but I know that at some point that will change, because one of her classmates will say something, or her teacher, or perhaps she’ll start paying more attention when we have NPR on. So I’ve been avoiding having these discussions with her, because I like that the scariest things currently in her world are daleks and weeping angels, not real people with guns or bombs, but I’ve also been thinking about how to approach topics like this when she’s too old to avoid doing so, because that time will come.

How about you all? What are your thoughts on the tragedies this week, and on the current manhunt? And if you live in the Boston area, stay safe!