boston

Stuff can be replaced; people can't. Life should not be expendable.

The last mile of today's Boston Marathon was dedicated to the victims of the Newtown school massacre. Families of Newtown were seated in the VIP section near the end of the race route. That's where one of the two explosions detonated today.

Other devices were found and are being detonated in a controlled process by authorities.  They temporarily have shut down cell phone service there, to prevent potential remote detonation.   (Edit: Associated Press has reversed their original claim.  The cell phone outage was a result of heavy usage.)

No one has yet claimed responsibility.  I fear that "red-blooded Americans" are to blame.

I gladly recommend breaking laws that are unjust. Murder, however, seems hard to justify for any political expediency.  I oppose the near-daily deaths of civilians subjected to American influence today, and I oppose this violent demonstration in Boston.

Compassion is the shared distress that one unharmed observer feels for one harmed victim.  Injuring the observer does not create compassion.  It merely doubles the misery.

I wanted to leave the country before this stuff started happening, before civility broke down.  Throughout history, only a lucky few get to claim asylum in civilized nations as an escape from uncivilized conditions.  I guess I should resign myself to being part of this story.  I wish I could think of something I'm able to do that would actually help.  I've already written stories about the need for an altogether new economy and some new rules of government.

Change happens, though, only when the pain of staying the same finally exceeds the fear of change.  We are stupid that way.