As of this writing there are few answers in the tragic bombing that took place near the end of the Boston Marathon on Monday, but the painful results are already known. Three innocent people are dead, including one eight-year-old child, and at least 183 have been injured, some severely and likely permanently.
A very smart Facebook friend of mine wrote that the bombing was “beyond comprehension.” Indeed it is. What sort of person (or people) could willfully set out to kill and maim other innocent people, people that have never done anything to them and that they don’t even know? What sort of person could be so consumed by hate that they feel compelled (or worse, feel a “right”) to destroy innocent lives. Such an act will be a permanent scar for those on the scene and the repercussions will continue to echo for thousands of miles and years to come.
It is easy enough to simply say that people are evil and humanity is going down the tubes, but that wouldn’t be accurate. The person or persons who did this are evil, just as those who flew airliners filled with innocent people into buildings, also filled with innocent people, were evil. But not everyone is.
I do know this: the police officers, firefighters and EMTs who rushed into the bloodied chaos vastly outnumber those who choose the cowardly act of killing innocents and spewing the hatred with which they are consumed. According to the Boston Globe and other news outlets, bystanders, themselves no doubt in shock, continually asked the first responders, “How can I help?” In doing so, they all showed the world that evil is indeed outnumbered.
I don’t have the statistics to back it up but I know in my heart that the men and women of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, and those in our hospitals greatly outnumber those who seek to do evil, harm and damage. Even if the sheer numbers don’t support my feeling, I know their spirit, courage, and absolute dedication to rushing in to help regardless of the scope of the tragedy, regardless of their own personal safety, ensures that they are immensely stronger in heart and will than those who seek to do evil. The bad guys will never win as long as we have good guys such as these.
Some people are evil. Some people are so consumed with inexplicable hatred that they insist on spewing it upon innocents in an effort to make an incomprehensible point. And perhaps that is how it should remain. They don’t deserve understanding or our comprehension. They merely deserve the full measure of justice, which, by itself, can never replace what they have taken with their cowardice, but is the best that we, as a civilized society, can do.
What happened in Boston on Monday was indeed beyond comprehension. I have little interest in the spittle-strewn justifications of a hate-consumed coward. The police officers, firefighters, EMTs and bystanders rushed in to help in the chaos and it will be those same people who will be standing tall when justice is ultimately delivered. And it will be delivered. The good people of this world vastly outnumber the evil. As long as that remains true, those who are evil will not and cannot win.
