Boston Marathon bombings

photo credit: Werner Kunz via photopin cc

Boston, Massachusetts!  Such a beautiful city, by reputation a highly desirable place to live and its high cost of living doesn't seem to have deterred its 7.6 million inhabitants.  Situated across the river from Cambridge home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the world famous Harvard, the city this week was marred by a despicable act of terrorism.

Trial by media is a dangerous precedent but all the indications are that two young men, originally from Chechnya chose a despicable path.  The Boston Marathon bombings on Monday were shocking and the motivation still a mystery.  By all accounts, the Tsarnaev brothers were welcomed by America, given scholarships, a home, good education but most importantly a safe shelter away from war torn Chechnya in the 1990's.   The older brother has a history of violence, arrested in 2009 for domestic assault and battery and the media has hinted about him mysteriously spending 6 months in Russia last year and "nobody knows why".  Thereby saying much without saying anything at all and now Russia is guilty by implication too!  Wars and hatred are so easily fed!

photo credit: hahatango via photopin cc

Why perpetrate such a heinous crime? We may never know, there may never be a trial and we may have no choice but to trust the FBI and the media when they tell us these two men are truly guilty and that they have no co-conspirators.  Has it been proven conclusively?  No, but the facts as presented certainly appear to point in that direction.

By the end of the week, one lies in a morgue, first shot by the police, but allegedly dead as a result of being run over by his younger brother.  The second, captured but with a serious throat injury leaving him unable to talk.  Convenient perhaps?

And so to the victims, three dead from the bombings and a young MIT police officer gunned down in a shoot out on Friday.  So many horrifically injured and so many lives ruined.  Jeff Bauman is clearly a hero, a man who lost both of his legs below the knee and yet found time to help the FBI identify at least one of the suspects.  His son too has lost both of his legs in the bombing.  How do you recover from this?  I was disgusted and appalled to see that he will be left to meet his own medical expenses.  WHAT THE?????  Amidst the physical and mental trauma, Jeff and the other 14 victims who lost limbs, are expected to fund their own medical expenses, inevitably hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

The 176 people injured as a result of this terrible crime should not have to face the added stress of finding money for medical treatment.  Surely a country that can spend trillions of dollars on war can find the money to treat these innocent victims!  Will Dzhokar Tsarnaev also have to fund his own medical treatment or will he and his family receive compensation for loss of life at the hands of the FBI?

America, for a country that has so much, surely it is time to reassess some of your values? 

.... and so to next week... no doubt the blame game will commence... it already has.... which Muslim cleric influenced these men?  Which anti-terrorist organisation failed to monitor their email or internet activity?  Why did they let him go when they arrested him in 2011 (after Russia allegedly asked for him to be investigated).  Outside of influence and failure to prevent their actions, if guilty, they made the choice.  They decided to take this action, nobody did it for them.

So now the authorities have yet more reason to curb freedom of the innocent, all in the name of anti-terrorism.......