Bombs went off in Boston

As I wrote in my blog, my father was a lifelong jogger and marathon runner, and this is one of his Boston Marathon photos. This was from 1979, when he was 46, and he ran the next year, too. I was so fortunate that he took me along with him both times - not to run, but to take film and photos (including the infamous faked finish of Rosie Ruiz). I stood right there in the crowd at the finish line where yesterday's unspeakable tragedy occurred. In 1979, I was smashed up against the barricade at the finish line in a spot I'd been holding for hours. He crossed the finish line right in front of me with a smile on his face and his hair still in perfect condition. In 1980, I managed to smooth-talk a press pass from Jock Semple himself, and I stood across the street in the area where the blasts occurred yesterday.

The thing that made the biggest impression on me was how proud the Boston people were of their marathon. We weren't a nuisance to them at all - everyone we met was very respectful and helpful, and I was moved by how much love they have for the Boston Marathon.

 

My friend at work yesterday made the comment that it had to be terrorist. I hate what happened but I think its ironic that some of the people running tword the explosion were of foreign decent that he puts in the terrorist crowd.

May god be with every victim and their family.

 

So true. Even the Olympic bombings in 1996.

 

because it's possible to hold more than one viewpoint simultaneously.
because it's possible to empathize with the folk killed and hurt--and others traumatized by it--and still others, like my friend who worked the medical tent at the finish line expecting a day of hydrating and treating stress-related problems that attend the end of a marathon only to find themselves working emergency triage in what felt like a war zone---because it's possible to know this and feel empathy and still be disgusted by the wider reactions:

The Boston bombing produces familiar and revealing reactions | Glenn Greenwald | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

 

I would just cautiously add that if your brothers or sisters initially react to this tragedy in a raw way that is different from what you would do, or is even offensive to you - cut them some slack.

 

so you're saying that the sleazy, racist fear-mongering of the ny post, for example, is ok? or that it should should pass without comment that people around here, who are shook and seemingly have trouble dealing with uncertainty, gravitate toward the "explanation" floated by the post that an (imaginary) "saudi national" was a "suspect"--even though none of it was true?

or that watching little media-space tunnels take shape and collapse that have already enabled the usual ultra-right idiots of the pamela geller ilk to start blaming islam all over again before there are any actual facts determined is something to be observed in silence because pointing it out might offend?

or are you saying that being repulsed by this all-american racist bullshit is somehow not a legitimate reaction?

or that the crackpot theories of patriot watch organizations that seem to want to blame hamas or israel or of people like alex jones that would blame the fbi--all of which have been circulating in the past 18 hours---all these are hunky dory because they're just people grieving?

 

The NY Post articles exist separately from the rest of this post. That was simply a rush to print rumor with no verification of fact. It was, at its core, sloppy journalism.

The rest is pure conjecture. Placing blame on any group at this point simply serves to make the blamer foolhardy if the investigation reveals another group responsible. For the most part, I have seen the media hesitant to make too many guesses at who might be responsible.

What I think is much more interesting is the right trying to distant themselves from their own radicals. I heard a talk radio program claim that Eric Rudolph does not consider himself a Christian. I heard them say that Timothy McVeigh was an agnostic. Then they launched into speculation that the Occupy! movement could be responsible, but not before going through the Weather Underground actions for a possible link - because we all know that 40 year old terrorist acts are incredibly relevant to those who would choose to repeat them.

/sarcasm

There is little that I will find surprising when the the authorities announce who they are pursuing. Puerto Rican nationalists, North Koreans, Native Americans, Tea Party activists, Islamists of one bent or another and Boston Mafia are all real possibilities. Speculation is an exercise. However, I do expect that we will have the usual complete disregard for the concept of cause and effect with whoever did this since we will be instructed that the act was an overreaction to some other provocation.

 

there is a significant distinction between how people react on the ground to such things and how those reactions are represented, reprocessed and reframed by the media apparatus. when such a thing happens close to where you live and directly affects people you know, a particularly acute awareness of this separation often results.

it is perverse and strange to watch those same people migrating into and back out of these media-spaces as they try to make sense of the experience. and the materials they end up taking over to explain such things are more often than not stupid.

i see no problem, ethical or personal, with doing my little bit to force that separation by pointing to the problems that attend taking over these pre-fabricated pseudo-explanations, particularly before there's anything actually determined about what happened.

the unfortunate reality is that, in many cases, the problems don't go away with the determination of cause. whomever did such a thing is always somehow Outside. that way the Inside--the set of television viewers, say, that confuses itself with the Nation (whatever that is) positions itself as intact and ok and a victim. from which follows all kinds of ugly shit, depending on which Outside happens to be the case.

personally, i'm not speculating at this point about who might have done this. superficial indications point in quite another direction than was taken by the post, but that's all they are--superficial indications.

 

sometimes, the onion makes me happy:

This Is A Tragedy—Does It Really Matter Exactly How Many People Died Or What Any Of The Details Are? | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
--- merged: Apr 16, 2013 at 5:11 PM ---

this pleases me. it's the only statement i have seen that does so.
here's the whole thing:

Statement from... | Facebook

 

I'm out of the loop a lot, so I couldn't tell if this question was for me. If it was, then yes - that's what I'm saying. Having been recently immersed in grieving, I can say that people's reactions to a shock don't have much to do with objectivity. They are what they are. I'm not smart enough to be able to tell whose reaction is correct and whose isn't.

But thankfully, I am smart enough to know the difference between an individual person's honest, gut reaction and the reaction of a corporation like the NY Post which exists to exploit headlines, sell papers, and turn a profit, and I try not to be confused by the latter.

 

Powerful pictures.
I was just sitting here thinking and and I could not pinpoint exactly where Boston is without looking at a map. A quick look at google maps showed a region I am completely unfamiliar with.

 

One thing I've learned over the past 10-15 years is that the last place you want to turn to for news when something big happens is the TV news or online news sources. I've stuck with Something Awful threads for every major story and consistently stayed several hours ahead of what was being reported on TV, and people there are willing to specify when something is unconfirmed or speculation. From what I've been hearing, the Reddit threads were similarly ahead of news outlets.

 

If anyone knows the camaraderie that exists between marathoners, its another marathoner. These events bring together the best of people, and im upset that an event that enables those more fortunate to help some great causes could come under attack. It demonstrates the evil intent of whoever perpetrated these bombings. Many (most) of my friends are runners. Some were even competing in the Boston Marathon, and some were badly shaken by what happened, although all are ok.

HOWEVER,

Ive been trying to think of a way of posting this without upsetting people here in a time where there's a lot of uncertainty in the air. With so little time to take in what's happened after such a barbaric act, im sure that emotions are high. But the level of finger pointing in the media is disturbing. As an arab, a runner, a muslim, ive had mixed emotions o what's happened over the last day and a half. From the shock of the initial reports about the bombing, to the false reports about who may have carried out these attacks, to the blatant finger-pointing without the actual finger pointing, to the disregard of the numerous bombing that day in other nations (In iraq alone, in numerous bombings almost 50 people were killed in a single day- many of them children - but these sort of events get little airtime or thought in mainstream news).

Over the last day and a half ive felt like ive been attacked numerous time from different angles. As a runner first and foremost, as well as by the media as a result the insinuations and conjecture from lazy reporters. After discussing yesterdays events with numerous people in the arabic community, all have unequivocally have told me the same thing... "i hope its not an arab" over and over again in the hope of distancing themselves from these events. And i agree. I hope its not an arab, but mostly i wish it was no-one.

This post isnt ill-intended and no offense is meant. What i do hope is that it helps create awareness and maybe some discussion here or elsewhere.

 

After the initial shock and then anger of this act, my first initial reactions were "angry white guy".

I still don't believe it is any large group or foreign entity. There's just not enough carnage. That isn't to say that domestic terrorists can't cause large amounts of carnage, I'm just saying that I think if it was part of a larger scheme or initiated by a larger group, those who carried it out would have had access to "better" weapons. Thankfully they didn't or this would have been even worse than it is now.

In a post 9-11 world, there is always going to be idiots who can't wait a few days before they start finger pointing and fear mongering towards the Arabs. These people *need* an enemy to assert their emotions on. They seem to ignore the rest of the world spinning around them and the evil perpetrated by all creeds and races. Perhaps they should go back through history and find all of the examples of how the Christian church is the root of far too much bloodshed - that it isn't singled out towards Islam.

I'm not awake yet. I can't wrap my head around where I'm actually trying to go with this so I'll just stop before I have to backtrack and rewrite too much.

 

Interesting link:

Based Heisenberg | What happens when you give 4chan images of the Boston Marathon?