Along with my fellow Americans, I reacted with horror at the prospect of so many innocents losing life and limb in the terrorist attack that took place yesterday afternoon at the Boston marathon. I awoke this morning feeling ill, hung over from exposure to the horrifying images broadcast on the networks following the bombing. We resist the pull of our imaginations as we put ourselves in the place of innocent bystanders suddenly torn apart by an exploding bomb and try to push back such thoughts. Yet, we cannot help but have thoughts not just of the injuries suffered by the victims, but the horrible impact on their families of what must seem so senseless, so unfair.
There will be those who will want, however, to censor another rush of images and feelings that most moral Americans no doubt also had as we watched these events from a distance. How many times have we watched news coverage of similar explosions, similar blood-stained pavements and expressions of anguish coming to us from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Israel, an entire global terror zone stretching from the eastern shores of the Atlantic to the Himalyas? The thousands of men, women and children who have paid the price of living in world where violence is considered an acceptable method of achieving political and economic goals? As earlier empires learned to their ever-lasting regret, no police force, no security apparatus can truly protect us and take us out of harm's way.
Is it too much to hope that, rather than succumb to some desire for revenge, an ever-descending spiral into even more violence, a growing number of Americans, in tandem with the vast majority of like-minded men and women around the world, will be motivated to demand an end to the violence?
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