Archive: News

The week after the September 11 attacks CNN had a report on an anthrax attack on news media sources and U.S. senators.  This particular report was on a victim who worked at the National Inquirer, which was located in Boca Raton, Florida.  That caught my attention, because CNN was showing a hospital that I recognized -- it is in the small city my parents live in, within walking distance of their house.  It was horrifying to think a biological attack was that close to them.

Monday the same thing happened.  I turned on the television to see a street I recognized getting blown up.  CBS News was looping a video showing bombs igniting on Boylston and Exeter Streets at the finish line of the Boston marathon.  I grew up in Boston, and I spent a lot of time downtown when I was growing up.  I still have some family in Boston, so again it was highly disturbing that the attack was centered there.

One of my favorite memories is of my father driving our family around Boston.  He owned a construction equipment rental company that was part of construction projects all over town, including what is now Boston's Government Center.  Any time you saw yellow scaffolding on a job it was his, and there was yellow scaffolding just about anywhere you looked.  He would point out buildings his company had worked on and equipment from his yard on construction sites around town.  He took pride in being part of building something lasting and good.

I don't know if that contributed to my lifelong hatred of people who destroy things.  I love the idea of coming up with an idea that will make something better for people and then finding creative ways to build it.  Here in Lansing there are many examples, including our schools and Myers Park Playground and the Lansing Lighthouse and the Lansing Community Library and the Town Center Trail.  They are not just things in our town.  They are things that people invested sweat and time and money and dreams in, and that investment makes them more than they physically are.

It comes down to this: some people build things and some ruin things.  Some people make things better around them, others make things worse.  The people who destroy things often use lofty excuses for doing what they're doing.  They claim they're doing it for God or to teach evil people a lesson, or because they feel personally wronged and think it's OK to make a grand gesture in retaliation.  But the fact is that they are just a--holes who like destroying things and other people.

At the time of this writing three people have lost their lives, 25 or 30 have lost limbs, and 183 injured and countless others traumatized.  Not to mention the 23,336 runners who trained for the marathon, started the race and hoped for a well-earned sense of satisfaction just for finishing the race, something 5,756 of the runners were unable to do.

Pointlessly.  By no stretch of the imagination have these people been the ones who did whatever the sick perpetrator thinks is worth stealing lives for, even if you want to buy whatever the excuse is going to turn out to be when they catch the bomber.  It's pointless and horrible.  Seriously, what could possibly justify this?

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