The Flag. Frisco, Colorado, 2013
What happened yesterday in Boston was indeed a “cowardly act” as I heard someone describe it. My heart is crushed for the dead and wounded and their families.
What I have to say next is not in any way intended to take away from what I have said in the previous two sentences. What I have to say next will, though–I hope–make all of us stop and think a bit more about this kind of stupid violence.
Here it is…I am going to give you two different newspaper headlines and I want you to think very carefully about your personal reaction to each. Do you react differently? (And I suspect you will.) Why do you react differently?
Headline #1:
Boston Marathon Bombing Kills 3 and Injures More than 170
Headline #2
7 Killed, 22 Hurt in Iraq Car Bomb Blast
In the days ahead, as you listen to the stories of the survivors and witnesses of the Boston bombing, realize that the same thing is happening on a weekly basis in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends–they grieve. Horrible injuries are suffered. Is life any less precious there? Why does this latest incident, here in Massachusetts, USA, “change everything” while other similar incidents in far off lands are greeted with a mere shoulder shrug?
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