What I learned from the Boston Bombing

Tsarnaev Brothers - So familiar they're dangerous

What the fuck happened there?

By "there" I'm referring to Boston, of course.

I mean, seriously, two Chechen kids decided to blow up bombs at the Boston Marathon, then the next day continued living as if everything was normal.

Details are emerging. Tamerlan Tsarnaev had supposedly become an Islamic militant as his time in America, as a foreign exchange student, drew to a close. The Russians asked the FBI about him in 2011, or so the record goes. But instead of leaving, he wanted to deliver a big knockout punch - an explosion that killed fewer people than about any shooting we've had over the last year set in place at the finish line of the third biggest marathon in the country. The 26-year-old jihadist roped his little brother into the scheme - side note, Kyle should I become a militant Muslim you have my permission to have me committed to Gitmo if you don't honor kill me first - and now Tamerlan's little brother is recovering from a failed suicide attempt in a hospital and will most likely be charged with all sorts of things that will result in his well-deserved execution.

A couple things jumped out at me here:

• Amidst all the hoopla about how America will be safer when we get guns off the streets, a bomb is set off that kills 3 and maims over 100 during one of the busiest and most regulated days in one of America's largest and most historic cities. BTW, the last mile of the marathon was run in honor of Sandy Hook. Reinforcing my belief that passing any gun control bills will only further advance the American illusion that the world is safe, just like TSA precautions that are widely-denigrated by anybody with half a brain and some scientific analysis into the efficacy of these intrusive practices.
• Everybody thought they would be Middle-Eastern Muslims, leading to the red herring detention of a Saudi who just happened to be there. Luckily they weren't right. No, it was a Caucasian Islamist. Seriously, how did people even discover Islam in the Soviet Union? Right, that whole Afghani war thing. It all comes back to Afghanistan. Anyway, they don't look white so let's just go with "Islamic"
• Terrorism vs. tragedy - because that's what's really important.

• That's right, Bill O'Reilly, perennial winner of the "Either I Was Malnourished as a Child or I'm an Evil Genius At Whipping Idiots to a Froth" award, rambled on about Boston by starting off claiming Barack Obama was wrong. Because Obama called this a tragedy. And it's not. It's an act of war or treason or both. Then he went on to say a kid opening up on a crowd of movie-goers isn't a terrorist but the Boston bombers are. His reasoning? The intent in Boston was political. That is, it's a statement against the government and so a crime punishable by death. The shootings in Colorado and Sandy Hook and all were just disaffected youths which has nothing to do with America. Wait, isn't the fact that our population is growing increasingly psychotic and we still have a weak infrastructure (at best) in place to deal with mental imbalance an insult to the liberties and ideals on which our nation was founded? Downright terrorist if terrorism is considered an attack on our nation and what we stand for? Oh wait, I get it. What O'Brien was trying to say is, if it's white American kids  - Christian kids, I mean - shooting up a bunch of people, it's just some big accident. If they're cafe-colored or darker, not to mention foreign, and worship Allah, yeah, that's an attack on America. Never mind that Dzokhar Tsarnaev looks like a younger Bob Dylan.
• I think they're all attacks on America and James Holmes and Dzokhar Tsarnaev should be tried the same. For all we know Holmes was brainwashed by Islamic jihadists like in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. He seems really out of it.
• Tamerlan was killed by his younger brother as he drove their stolen SUV at the police arresting Tamerlan after a murderous shootout. Tamerlan was run over and then dragged. These aren't Islamic militants in the standard sense that they were not well-trained or equipped. They were douchbag copycat wannabes. Like the kid at VA Tech who liked ultra-violent Korean movies. 
• Everybody who claims that our society has been desensitized by movies and video games needs to shut up right now. These bombs killed a fraction of the people killed in most Tarantino or Scorcese movies and such death and mayhem wouldn't be a blip on most video game screens. Yet the response and outpouring of anguish, love, and support has been amazing. It's something that revitalizes a person's belief in America, brotherhood, all of that. 

But now what the fuck? Where do we go from here? Is this yet another stick to be thrown on the Islamic bonfire? Further proof we need to destroy all worshipers of Allah and Mohammed, kill the good with the bad, like chemotherapy but for religion instead of cells? 

Or is it proof that we need to realize that the party is over? For a long time America was the ivory tower, a majestic monument to all that was right in the world. A tribute to freedom and strength and peace. Now we're more like the old rundown mansion from SUNSET BOULEVARD peopled with a society of Norma Desmonds holding onto atavistic values in a world that has seeped in over the last 60 years of neocolonialism and short-sighted socio-economic policies. This is a tragedy and is traitorous and all that. But compared to the violence and death that occurs every day in most of Africa and the Middle East, not to mention regular bombings and violent riots burning their way across Europe, it's not even a blip on the screen. Sure, perhaps the significance of the day adds to the impact. But only slightly. It's an exercise activity. Yes, it's Patriots Day but most people didn't even know that. It would be like a bomb going off during a Patriots game being declared an act of terrorism only because the team is the Patriots and that has meaning. Belichick would probably rally people to believe that. 

But no, it's time to really step back and take a long look at ourselves. Maybe the party is over. The outpouring of love from local Bostonians has been a wondrous reminds of the goodness of humanity. But why does it take horrible things happening to get us to look out for one another? 

Why do we waste countless hours and dollars debating regulations when we should really be addressing our woeful discarding of outcasts and disaffected, our ignorance of bullies and religious fanatics, whether it's Christians bombing abortion clinics or Muslims bombing footraces? All Religious fervor is dangerous in the wrong hands, no matter what higher power you embrace.

When will we actually make steps to address this Militant Islamic thing? And I mean not with weapons, it's woefully obvious we'll never win that way. You can't destroy ideals with explosives - as we learned when bystanders didn't miss a beat tending to the injured. But we have a serious PR problem in which we've been identified as the enemy of Islamic Jihadists in spite of the fact that, let's be honest, most American couldn't give two shits about them. But hell, when all they know of us is that we've turned their ancient backwards cities into smoldering rubble piles and our camouflaged boys can be easily scapegoated by power-hungry warlords as the cause (even though they'd been destroying such cities for much longer), of course they'll be irrationally angry. We had two small bombs rip through a city that for the most part is unscathed and it's a national outrage.

I don't know where we go from here. But hopefully instead of using this as an excuse for political infighting like d-bag O'Reilly or an excuse for killing Islamists or claiming it just another random act of violence, it will open up some serious national dialogues:

1. We spend billions to regulate (poorly) and assess and our nation's employment and economic health on an hourly basis. When will we start doing the same with the mental health of our citizens?
2. We show outpourings of love and helpfulness and attention to our brothers and sisters in a time of tragedy yet when everything is going good many of our citizens are quick to judge, turn a nose away, and claim that charity and goodwill is akin to communism.
3. We have yet to really address the rise of anti-American fanaticism, especially in the Islamic world, except to claim that somehow we'll magically bomb every head of a 1000-headed hydra before they grow back and then all their cousins and family left behind will just decide those heads were stupid.
4. We foster illusions of safety and certainty in an increasingly unsafe and uncertain world. The gap between the wealthiest and the poorest is growing rapidly. Such a situation breeds this kind of violence - look at Mexico, for example. Why doesn't one of our liberal politicos sack up and say something like that?

Again, though, I don't know what the solution is. But in the words of Jerry Springer, "Till next time, take care of yourself, and each other."

- Ryan