Monday April 15th, 2013. A day not unlike any other in the city of Boston except for the fact that it was the day which changed the lives and future of so many because of 1 cowardly and pathetic act perpetrated by a couple of "losers" as their own uncle called them on Thursday when it began to leak out about who the alleged bombers were. A day of celebration for many who would have their lives altered forever.
What we know about the 2 alledged bombers is not a whole hell of a lot to be blunt. One just 19 years of age, the other 26, brothers who had lived in the US for over a decade yet could not find a way to assimilate into the new found freedom they had after fleeing war torn Chechenya with their hard working father and mother. The description that their uncle used to call them "losers" seems to fit quite well given their back story.
April 15th is commemorated by Major League Baseball and all it's teams as they honour the birthday of a man who changed the game forever when he became the first Black player to become an everyday player in what had been an all white league before he crossed the colour line. Jackie Robinson, the man for whom a movie was made which is currently the #1 movie in theaters, was born on April 15th and is seen as a hero for his courageous move in crossing that racial divide which still engulfs many aspects of American life. In Boston on that day, not only were they commemorating his birthday by having every player involved in the early 11 am Red Sox game, but they were also celebrating the running of the Boston Marathon, which was the reason why the baseball game was being played at that time. This meant a great many more people were in the general area of the downtown core then would normally be on a typical Monday afternoon.
April 15th now will have a negative commemoration going forward as well given what happened only 1 week ago.
Clearly, this plot had its roots in the knowledge that there would be thousands upon thousands of innocent bystanders to which these villains could unleash their sinister plans upon.I would also suspect that there is something else at work here as well. Something that speaks more to the where of this occurrence then anyone will care to really acknowledge.
The one thing I hate hearing more then anything is how everyone who knew the younger of the 2 accused is so stunned by this. How he "appeared" to be so "normal". Well, what is normal now? Is it normal to have no friends at all and have members of your own family calling you a "loser"? Or maybe it is normal to be so unaccustomed to freedom that you resent everyone around you to the point that you decide to leave bombs at the finish line of a major sporting event? Possibly it's more normal that while your parents accuse everyone else of a set up to frame their children, that you kill a cop and throw home made grenades at police while you try to escape, then try to detonate a bomb attached to your chest instead of being taken in by the police.
I love how suddenly all these conspiracy theories start popping up about how these two were patsies for some secret "Blackwater" plot involving some massive multi-national corporation named Craft and how all these mysterious pictures start circulating about a couple of other guys who were wearing back packs in multiple pictures. I admit I would love to live in the movies, but this is such a far fetched notion that even a seasoned novelist would have a hard time explaining away some of the aspects of these theories. Lets' get back to reality.
For all these people who keep saying that they thought the youngest of the two was so "normal", clearly he wasn't. Clearly he had problems adjusting to a society that expects you to assimilate to their customs and traditions and clearly this has much more to do with what happened than anyone has even begun to mention yet. I am not going to say that anything that happened was deserved because it wasn't. I will never believe that there is any justification for such ruthlessness simply because you as an individual can't accept having (god forbid) freedom.
What I am saying is that the melting pot which is American Society, has some fault to blame when it comes to people like these two brothers acting like this. It has some blame to accept when a person like Timothy McVeigh becomes a domestic terrorist and kills hundreds of people in a bombing back almost 20 years ago. When people proclaim the virtues of America as being the best in the world, why then do so many people have so many issues with America?
We live in a nation that has over 75% of our population within 100 km of our border with the US and yet our cultural differences, particularly with regards to how we treat immigrants, are so different that we could like thousands of miles away from one another. Our society is not perfect. Canada has (lately) been seemingly overrun with policies that appear, on the surface at least, to actually favour immigrants over people actually born in Canada or who have lived here for decades. Case in point, a person who has lived here and worked here their entire life gets paid less per month in retirement benefits than a retiree from a country like India (a country that has some kind of financial arrangement worked out with our Government, dating back to the 1990's) and has moved here with their family only within the last 10 years.
Clearly, we have our own issues. But the one thing you don't seem to hear (in general at least) is anyone complain that their culture (other then Natives and the hardline sovereigntists in Quebec) is being subjugated or ignored by the government. You don't hear anyone say that living in Canada means forgetting about your cultural roots. When people ask you what nationality you are in Canada, a person will say blank-Canadian whereas south of the border, they just expect you to say American. Clearly this is starting to weigh on some immigrants in the US more then anyone cares to say or do anything to even attempt to change.
What we need to learn from this is clearly that even with all the freedom in the world, some people just can never be happy or satisfied, for 1. At the same time, the amount of violence in the US seems to continue to rise and yet the powers that be can not figure out how to agree on anything when it comes to gun control measures. I'm not saying that I believe this but there is always a chance that part of this idea I am about to explain could be fueling some of the conspiracy theorists out there.
Given that the US Federal Government in Washington is so dysfunctional (and borderline racist, at lest the Republicans appear to be) and they can't seem to agree on any gun control measures particularly when public sentiment is hovering around 90% in favour of gun control measures, what better way then to change the public sentiment about guns then to scare them into thinking they need them to fight off immigrant terrorists? The Bush Administration did it all the time, it is a remote possibility but still, you never know.
In conclusion, regardless of who or whom you believe is the actual perpetrator of this heinous and cowardly act, the fact remains that it has once again pushed Americans into a position of fear with regards to their daily lives. Americans living in fear leads to more guns being sold and more violent reactions by everyday "normal" people. I would not be surprised if we start to hear about a spike in both gun sales and violent behaviour over the next few weeks after this tragedy simply because it tends to be how Americans react. Yet we live so close to them and we don't react even remotely like they do and will to the exact same tragic event. Which just goes to show in great detail just how different our 2 great nations are.
