What Can Anyone Say?

On April 15, our country was once again subjected to a terrorist attack, this time in Boston. At the finish line of the Boston Marathon one bomb went off, followed by another a block away. Three people were killed including an eight-year-old boy. More than 150 were wounded by nails and ball bearings, and whatever else was packed into the homemade pressure cooker bombs.

Complete strangers became lifesavers stepping in to help their fellow men and women. Lives were changed forever in an instant. Those that lost their lives will be forever remembered for being in the right place at a very wrong time.

Sports in Boston took a back seat with Bruins, Celtics and Red Sox games getting postponed until those responsible were caught. Finally, Friday evening the nightmare was over except for how and why, and maybe those questions will never be answered.

I’ve often wondered how anyone can hate so much to indiscriminately kill or maim innocent strangers, young and old alike. Sports have often dictated that in order for players to get a feel for the competitive edge, rivals are treated with less respect and you try to have as much dislike for them as possible.

Now, I’ve heard players say that they hated a certain individual and wanted to see them hurting. But what they really are looking for is the disappointment the rival will have after a loss. Players shake hands after the game and if they have the chance they will do their best to put on the game face and get angry to again try to find victory.

But no athlete in their right mind would try to inflict unnecessary injury on another player or heaven forbid death. So what triggers this amount of hatred for a generic group of people? Since these were two brothers, there is little doubt to me that the older of the two had to have had a major influence on the younger one. But that is only speculation. We may never know the answer to any of the questions we’ve all have been wondering about. But we are all thankful for law enforcement agencies working together to find the perpetrators.

Unfortunately, two more officers were shot, one fatally, during a shootout on Thursday night.

It is so difficult for me to be able to understand how hate can be so brutal. If it is in the name of religion or even nationalism, who would ever think that killing and maiming innocent people that are having a fun day watching marathon runners is a good thing or could make those believers proud. Yet there are so many that think this way and they believe this country should suffer like so many others do.

It seems that every time a situation like this happens, Americans step up to the plate and become more in tune with their neighbors and become just a little more patriotic.

Rivals aren’t rivals anymore, because there is a bigger team to support. There has to be a better way for people to get their point across than with terrorism, but the wrong people seem to have the most influence unfortunately.

I’m not sure what anyone can say about the brutality of this world. There is far too much of it and we see it every day. These aren’t video games where the dead come back to life like nothing happened. It is real and it needs to stop.