They Buried the (Alleged) Bomber In My Backyard

And so it begins.  Someone finally stepped forward to bury the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the alleged Boston bomber who was killed during a confrontation with police.  His body was in limbo for a while because no cemetery in the Boston area wanted to take him.  The news came out, yesterday or today, can’t remember, that someone had accepted the body and he has since been interred.  Well, turns out that the grave is in my area.  I live in Virginia about an hour north of Richmond.  The burial site is in the next county over from mine.  I heard about this on CNN and since then there have been a couple of blurbs in local online newspapers.  I scrolled down to read the reader comments and it’s about 80% righteous indignation at him being buried on American soil and 20% who cares he’s dead.

People have been calling 911 to let the sheriff know that Tsarnaev has been buried here.  I can’t really understand that.  It’s hardly an emergency requiring police response.  How about you do the most beneficial thing and just get on with your life?  Let the dead remain.  If God doesn’t want him there He can have the earth spit him out.  Other than that, let it go and leave it alone.

It is okay to be mad, outraged, at what happened in Boston.  It was a tragedy and a horrendous crime.  But to spew hatred towards Muslims or Arabs (though he was not one) or foreigners is a waste of time and energy.  Do what the good people do.  Take your pain, your anger, your outrage, and turn it to a good cause.  Trust me.  We have so many bad things going on in this country that don’t involve foreign terrorists.  Use your energy for something positive rather than just railing against one dead man.  What can you do?  (Takes a deep breath):

You can:  volunteer at a hospice, visit sick people in the hospital, drive a man to his doctor appointment, help a person learn to read, donate to a food pantry, man the phones for a rape crisis hotline, mentor at-risk kids, plant a garden, help out at an animal shelter, knit hats and booties for preemie babies, visit a mosque to learn what Islam REALLY teaches, praise your kids when they clean up after dinner without being told, talk nice to your wife, talk nice to your husband, join Meals on Wheels.

You get the idea.  Listen, this world is a tough, challenging place.  Over the time period since the Boston bombings, we’ve had over a thousand people killed in Bangladesh when a factory that makes cheap clothing collapsed, thousands have died due to gun violence, including several kids shot by other kids just in the last week or two,  buses have gone off into ravines in India, a big factory in West, Texas, exploded, American service members were killed in Afghanistan….

This world is a test and a place of trials and tribulations.  You can sit on the sidelines and rail at the bad people, or you can get busy trying to make the world a better place one good deed at a time.  There are only twenty-four hours in a day.  You want to spend your mental energy worrying about where Tamerlan Tsarnaev is buried, or would you rather get involved with the living?  I choose life.