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Boston Marathon Explosions
person
Don't believe everything you thinkThe liminal space Veteran
Just wanted to start a thread where we could talk about the bombs that went off at the Boston Marathon today.
Its early so things may change but what they are saying is confirmed is that 2 explosions went off about 15 seconds apart near the end of the marathon. Another explosion apparently went off at a library in Boston as well and the authorities say they recovered at least one other unexploded bomb in a nearby trashcan. So far 2 have died and 23 people have been injured. I think they said 6 of the injuries were critical, some of them amputations.
My take is that as this was during a marathon there were a large number of police and ambulances already on scene and thus people that may have bled to death waiting for help were able to be saved and the situation was quickly under control. This is scary to people, especially to those in the area but as far as an attack on the US it really means nothing apart from the potential fear that it may generate. They have no idea who set the bombs but terrorist groups have no doubt been trying to attack the US for 12 years since 9/11 and if this is all they can muster during that amount of time it is something I think we can accept without having to panic and hand over all our rights for greater security.
There have been attacks in Europe and I'd be curious to hear how those of you who live over there have handled them.
Its early so things may change but what they are saying is confirmed is that 2 explosions went off about 15 seconds apart near the end of the marathon. Another explosion apparently went off at a library in Boston as well and the authorities say they recovered at least one other unexploded bomb in a nearby trashcan. So far 2 have died and 23 people have been injured. I think they said 6 of the injuries were critical, some of them amputations.
My take is that as this was during a marathon there were a large number of police and ambulances already on scene and thus people that may have bled to death waiting for help were able to be saved and the situation was quickly under control. This is scary to people, especially to those in the area but as far as an attack on the US it really means nothing apart from the potential fear that it may generate. They have no idea who set the bombs but terrorist groups have no doubt been trying to attack the US for 12 years since 9/11 and if this is all they can muster during that amount of time it is something I think we can accept without having to panic and hand over all our rights for greater security.
There have been attacks in Europe and I'd be curious to hear how those of you who live over there have handled them.
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One of my friends commented: "It just makes you not want to leave the house anymore." And I think that is exactly the attacker's goal. It could be external terrorists or it could be just some crazy American... we don't know yet. But for me personally, the reaction is the same. I refuse to live my life fearing like that. Where would this mentality end? When I'm an agoraphobe who ends up even ordering my groceries online?
Remember guys, "Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home." -Basho
I am sad for the victims and their family and I hope there will not be more.
If it makes you very afraid, stop watching. You aren't doing yourself any favors by scaring yourself into being afraid to leave the house. It's scary, for sure. But the media is well entwined in our culture of fear. It's the same as in the 80s when every parent though daycares were run by satanic cults and every child who walked to the bus stop would get kidnapped.
Very sad that it happened. So many victims. Speculation on who did it and why doesn't help any one.
"For never in this world
Do hatreds cease through hatred;
Through love alone do they end.
This is the ancient and eternal law."
The lack of compassion found on the Internet astounds me. Everything is much easier to say when you are behind a keyboard.
However, I will thank the first responders and civilians and emergency preplanners that helped in Boston.
Imagine what a wheelie-bin full of ammonium nitrate could have done.
The whole street, maybe a thousand dead.
May all those injured, dead, or affected find some peace.
What rubbish coverage, all hype.
Did the bombs go off after several people had already won or not?
I've yet to hear a tittle or an iota about the timing, in spite of my attempts.
@Jason, no I don't care about crazy, insane situations such as Iraq. What good would it do? But I did live in Cambridge, Mass and worked in Copley Square for a couple of years. That does hit home to me. I'm wondering who I can call to find out about the Boston Marathon.
It's the Boston Marathon, @youmediathugs in TV land, not a soap box for drama...
I do tend to agree with you -- to a degree -- about Jason's post. Do I feel bad that things like that happen in Iraq, or the earthquake in Iran, or the mudslide in _____, or the...it goes on and on. But it's not so easy to identify with people in a nation I've never visited and don't know anything more about than what I read. And, I personally can't do anything about the situation in Iraq. On the other hand, I have spent time in Boston, I know the American culture, I know people who run marathons and potentially could have been in Boston, I've stayed in a hotel that's right there within a block of the blast. So in the situation in Iraq, I can't really relate, but when it's close to home, I can. I don't think it's wise or mentally healthy for any of us to allow ourselves to be the receptacle for the whole world's misery. I do what I can closer to home or in Thailand, where I know the people and culture. I will have to leave the rest of the world to others. My resources are limited.
Its hard to say one is worse than the other, I think its more that they are different and this is an attack we haven't seen before in the US.
Or if "they" did, they did it in a sort of code that one not having time to "watch" missed. I might have looked a few times and listened a bit, but I was at work, and now it's still about the violence.
Shame. Shame.
Did the bombs go off before, during, or after the first, second, and third persons crossed the finish line? That's basically all I'm asking.
The bombings happened about 2 hours after the elite runners finished. That fact was said many times, maybe after a while they forgot there were new people tuning in who didn't know that.
We all have the capacity for empathy, if those seeds are watered. If they aren't watered, should anyone be surprised? The point is for oneself to cultivate one's own empathy and, in doing so, cultivating it in others. The empathy threshold needs to be lowered--this is something that needs to be learned. What does sitting on the sidelines pointing fingers at all the jerks in the world accomplish?
Should we expect the world to be full of only saints? Should we expect the world to be full of only sinners? The world is not so conveniently unambiguous. To expect a world of purity is only to set oneself up for disappointment.
@music if you feel it takes too much effort to do good and too little effort to do evil, I'm not sure we live on the same planet. Most people are good people. No one on the planet is perfect, some are better at being really good people than others. But most are good.
@Nirvana I don't know what news you have been watching but everything I watched and have read in the past 24 hours mentioned the timing of the race. I was looking at the race results online before this happened. The bombs went off about 4 hours and 15 minutes into the marathon, which is the more typical average time of the average joe runners. Elite runners finish around a 2:12 to 2:30 pace. A decent time for the average runner is around 4-5 hours. It seems the bombs were timed for heavy impact. Anyhow, this was talked about on every source I checked, and the results were being published as they came in until the chaos ensued. After that point, obviously, the race was called off. So I'm not really sure what you were looking for, the information has been there all along.
Person here did help me out on this matter. That's really all I needed, as I think I said above. Down home we sometimes look at TV —we never watch it. (We watch our neighbors to see if they're behaving right.)
From my point of view, it's sad and fucked up that 3 people died and 144 were injured yesterday at the Boston marathon when 2 bombs went off at the finish line; but I think it's equally sad and fucked up that people are jumping to blame Muslims and 'darker-skinned' individuals, as if crazy white assholes and extremists don't bomb and shoot people all over the US all the fucking time (and if it comes out that the bomber is white, watch how fast the coverage switches from 'act of terrorism' to 'act of lone nutcase').
And in regard to the 31 people that were killed and the 200 who were injured in a coordinated bomb attack in Iraq, as well as any other tragedies that took place yesterday, I think our sympathies (and news coverage) should extend to all victims of violence equally, and stop being tools of fearmongering and sensationalism (and so Anglo-American-centric).
As to people "jumping to blame Muslims", I would say more of the talk I heard on MSNBC and CNN has been about the probability of home-grown terrorists.
Yes, America is very American-centric. When I lived in Thailand I found Thais to be very Thai-centric. In visiting Malaysia I found the Malays to be very Malay-centric. The Indonesians to be very Java-centric.
The Buddha certainly didn't.
He said that people are good or bad according to their conditioning and actions.
If it is Buddha Nature that you refer to , then that is true at a level which most of us have no experience.
It's the few criminals who make the many honest people lock their doors.
The few fanatics who commit the acts of terror upon the many reasonable folk.
The few warmongers or profiteers who lead an otherwise good population to support an unjust war.
People bully because they are hurting inside and no one is listening. So they take it out on someone else.
There has been mention of both home grown and otherwise, in response to the Boston event, but there was a lot of mention the first day especially that turned out to be false reports of a Saudi under arrest, under guard and so on. They talked to him. That's all. I bet they talked to everyone else in the hospital, too, yet that wasn't news worthy. The police talking to a Saudi was, even though a HUGE proportion of bombings in the US have been the workings of Americans. Almost all of them, in fact. I looked it up yesterday. Out of 30 some bombing events since the early 80s, 25 of them were caused by Americans.
Many muslims hate America. If the america really crafty, why do you have to repay it with hatred as well? That's why I don't respect SOME(not all) stupid Muslims people. They do not actually practice the teachings of love. You make the situation worse. Highly inappropriate to make bad speculation on when others are suffering. I need a peaceful world. I hate it!!!!! sorry guys, but i really want to say F*ck you!!!!
I'm curious why you chose to post this in the Boston bombing thread, as there is no proof whatsoever that the bombing was done by a Muslim. There are lots and lots of false pictures being spread on FB, about the Boston event and about many other things. They are not exclusive to Muslims.
There are a lot of people who hate America. While I never condone hatred and violence, can one really blame people for how they feel about the US? We do some pretty horrible things in the name of greed, money and preserving ourselves at whatever cost to the rest of the world.
If all you do is focus on the bad that gets done, then you are missing a much bigger chunk of humanity. In fact, if people where as terrible as you say, I'm not sure that human beings would've made it nearly this long since we get along in this world by cooperating and caring for others. There are cultural trends that can encourage bad decision making and behavior, but society itself (even what passes for mainstream) is not only not monolithic, but is subject to change. It is also not entirely defined by those on top.
I would also say that while it is easy to think and act from a place of ignorance (which admittedly can get people into trouble and no one is entirely immune from), it is not easy at all to perpetrate the sorts of devestating actions like what happened at the marathon, the mass shootings that have been in the news etc. Very very few people seek to cause that kind of pain and destruction.