Like almost everyone in this country I watched the entire drama in Watertown today. This was the closing chapter in a dramatic tragedy. Three innocents killed, 140+ injured, one police officer killed and another at risk of losing his life.
Like almost everyone in this country I watched nothing today about a blast that destroyed a large portion of a town, killed 14 (9 were first-responders), and put 200 in hospital.
In The Hunger Games, the only lives of people in District 12 that were important were the two combatants whose struggles were televised, though it is obvious that many died in that district from disease or malnutrition. All this was part of a government plot.
The differences in the visibility and nation attention between Watertown/Boston and West were not part of a goverment plot. One reason for these differences is the way in which information and news are disseminated in America today. In Watertown/Boston, there was the excitement of the chase. In West, there was the horror of a search thru debris for bodies. In Watertown/Boston the killers were individuals who had many who would talk about them. In West, The West Fertilier Company was a faceless corporate entity.
Another reason is our national confusion about the nature of violence. Planting a bomb is obviously an act of violence. It is done with malice and it results in injury. Operating an unsafe fertilizer plant is done thru inattention, inability, or greed. It creates a bomb much more dangerous than anything you can put in a backpack.
The Boston bombing was an American tragedy. The response to the Boston bombing was an heroic effort that we must all applaud.
None of us will probably notice any law enforcement response to the tragedy in West. Civil suits will undoubtedly be filed. But, civil suits really just take care of the plantiff, not the underlying problem. In all likelihood, there won't be a response from the criminal justice system. But, corportations and the politicians and bureaucrats that allow them to far more frequently and violently wreak the havoc that they do--will always be more of a threat to our citizenry than two young men gone terribly wrong. Those young men have, or wil, pay the price of their violence.
My heart goes out to those who lost someone and those injured in Boston. My heart also goes out to those in West, Texas,who are no less the victims of violence. It was murder in Boston. It wasn't murder in West, but it was dreadful, deadly violence. Will anyone pay the price?