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Boston April 15, 2013

By on April 16, 2013

On the day everyone in America is fretting about their income taxes, someone decided to make a statement by planting several bombs at the end of the Boston marathon. This is America’s oldest marathon, and maybe the world’s best known. Every  runner I have known has aspired to participate in it at some time. The explosion, the carnage, today brings back memories of many past episodes like this in recent American history, most especially 9/11. Mass murder is becoming a regular part of American life. A regular feature of the news of the day.

 

2ndIronically some of the people in Boston today on Boylston Street  were raising money for the victims of Sandy Hill.  Some were from Sandy Hill, there in support. Have these people not suffered enough? It is ironic that this event comes amid the debate about weapons safety in Washington, with the Republicans in contortions trying  to line up with the munitions manufacturers who finance their campaigns. They have been yelling about protecting Second Amendments rights like Second Amendment rights were actually being threatened. They’re not. The Second Amendment does not give Americans the right to purchase any artillery they wish so that they can shoot up or blow away anybody that gets in their way. Weapons make holes in people, not the mentally disturbed, unless we put these instruments in their hands. The only rights been taken away are those of the people being killed.

1stNow I would suppose these same protectors of artillery money will argue that those who set off the bombs in Boston were only exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech by expressing their public unhappiness about something there. It makes as much sense. In this era of international terrorism and civil discontent, with white supremacist groups running around shooting public officials they don’t like, and North Korea run by a juvenile delinquent with a basketball fetish and a hunger to be taken seriously, government must draw the line and put public safety ahead of their campaign coffers and special interests.  They need to stop insulting our intelligence with arguments that don’t make sense. They need to send the ding-a-lings in both parties back up to the attic where they belong.

thumbAnd if our elected officials can’t make this happen, we need to show them to the door come the next election. Staying home to show our disinterest does not help. In the end, we will only get the government and public policies we demand. It is not a time to remain silent. Too many children are suffering for our passivity and that of our elected officials nervous about a re-election they don’t deserve. Boston is just one more outrage in our slide down the slippery slope of public dysfunction. Pick up the phone and let Washington know that the time for rhetoric is over. Let them know you are taking names and kicking butts.

 

Tom Godfrey

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