Boston.
Take a moment in silence.
And then,
There are a couple of historical events and broader contexts related to the Boston marathon bombing that I feel need to be more heavily considered in our decision making with regards to and understanding of these events:
This is most likely a domestic dispute. Typically, foreign terrorists want to connect their actions with their ideologies as quickly as possible. This is a pissed-off American. This is not "the other" that we have grown to fear, but one of our own. Boston, home of the tea party, is synonymous in American culture with freedom, independence, and the protest of taxes. The marathon is a cultural icon; the meaning of it and nostalgia we hold for it would not really be understood by a foreign group.
Tax day. The day of the race is the first tax day in recent memory in which I did not see a flood of tax stories on the evening news. That I do not remember hearing tax day mentioned even once is puzzling to me. Since 2001 the total share of taxes paid by the very wealthy has decreased as the share paid by the middle class has increased. Since the Occupy Movement of 2011, the movement for economic justice has gained increasing traction from citizens affiliated with both liberal and conservative political parties.
We have been so badly distracted by the gun control debate that we have failed to address the larger problem of anger, violence, and untreated mental illness in our population.
We need to have a larger conversation. This fight will not be won with force; it will grow from social change.
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