Monday, April 15, 2013

Boston Marathon Tragedy

By JIMMY GOLEN | Associated Press
It is too soon. It is too early. Let's not cast blame. Let's not politicize this horrific event.

Those are the words of people who don't want us to remember that when it is okay to be as political and polarizing as possible, they do it. They don't want us to remember their deeds and their actions.

A lot of us  are sick and tired of the hypocrisy and think this is the perfect time  to remember that those who devalue our work, our skills, our existence, and our purpose in life have no problem deciding that police, paramedics, firefighters, teachers, and all sorts of social infrastructure needs to be de-funded and privatized.

Today we learned that amputations were done on site due to the severity of the injuries.

Privatize that!

Hospital personnel heard about this event in their day off and did not think twice about running out their doors and providing their services to victims.

Privatize that!

Police officers, also off-duty, marched to the site and their precincts  No one had to call them. They showed up.

Privatize that!

It would serve us well to remember these things now and not wait until memories fade, the shock is over, and the spin-masters begin to cast blame to garner political points and distribute their bumper-sticker slogans that pass for actual news and information.

Every Ron and Rand Paul comments about "Liberty" focuses exclusively on no government interference in any aspect of our lives. What they are really saying is "you are on your own. We will let the free-market (read corporations and Wall Street) decide what they wish to be involved in. If you are not part of their plan, too bad for you."

Funding of police officers, paramedics, emergency personnel, and fire-fighters is a necessity in all of our communities.

Tragedies happen. Accidents happen. Terrorism - Foreign and domestic - Happens.

No, it is not too early to remember all those people in Congress who work against the best interest in society. Vote them out.

No one has to politicize anything. Just remember what happened here today and realize who pays for the first responders, and how quickly, those who had their day off, bolted into action because that is what normal people do.

Who did this?

Who knows. Not yet. But we will know.

Theories?

They are abundant. People on social media are connecting dots, but the picture is not clear.

Some are blaming the government. Others are blaming each other. Racist groups, the NRA fanatics, the weapons industry, the "others"... The list goes on and no one has any of the facts yet.

What we need to keep in mind is that we need the services to be public. Not private.

The elected officials who don't have the guts now to say "We don't need these services unless they are privatized" know full well they can't justify it in the light of these events, but make no mistake, the ideological rhetoric will return as soon as our minds forget.

Do not forget.

These people are destroying the fabric of our society as systematically as any terrorist organization can do in a single event.

One thing is for certain, the systematic destruction of our social structure cannot recover if we don't stop this in its tracks.

It is not political. It is common sense. Do not forget.

1 comment:

Susan Klatz Beal said...

Well said. I don't want to cast blame because I have no idea who did this. I will say, however, that I can't wrap my mind around this type of behavior or what would prompt anyone to do such a horrific thing. Thank God for the first responders....for those who were there, and for those who jumped into swift action because of the oath they take, and because that's what decent people do.

I want our world, our society to return to the safe, decent type of place where people who want to run a marathon in a great city like Boston can do so without having to worry about whether or not they'll lose a limb because of some crazy person's desire to inflict the greatest possible harm. That much seems pretty obvious.