Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The reaction to the Boston Marathon bombings

It's been difficult reading and listening to the coverage of the Boston Marathon, not thankfully because any of my friends or family were injured, but because of the relentless 'you can't beat a marathoner' attitudes. 

Actually you can. Three people so far are dead. The list of men, women and children left without legs is horrific, simply horrific. It just seems facile to drag out the sort of slogans used to get you over a hill or to break that running wall and say yeah, this fits here. 

Perhaps in this situation acknowledging someone's grief and pain is more useful to them than making T-shirt slogans and online memes. I doubt very much the mothers who have lost children need to see the posturing going on this week. 

I understand people are afraid and they want to somehow prove to the bombers - whoever they are - that this act cannot hurt them. But it already has. 

There is a place for grief and sadness and this is it.  In the same way we should be reaching out  to victims in Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar. All deaths caused by mankind's absolute lack of humanity should be mourned, not hidden under a quilt of superficial sloganeering. 


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