Don Roach: Boston Bombing—The Latest Challenge To Our Freedom
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Ok, I was mad.
I could sugarcoat it and pretend like what happened on Monday didn’t piss me off but that’d be a lie. Here’s the scene on Monday. You’re watching loved ones achieve something they’ve worked hard for and then in an instant your life is forever changed because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
What?? Wrong place, wrong time? Are you telling me that any of the people killed or injured on Monday should have considered, “well there are a lot of people out here today and some nutjob might think this is a good opportunity to make a statement against the United States?”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTOf course not, so let me amend my earlier statement. These people were at the right place and at the right time, celebrating the accomplishment of a loved one or celebrating those who fought and died for our independence. Whatever brought them to the Boston Marathon on Monday, it should have been a time of fun and jubilation. I’m not going to apologize for these people having a good time and sharing it with their families. The fact that some aforementioned nutjob took the opportunity to destroy the lives of at least three people and forever change the lives of dozens of others should not deter us from continuing to stand upon one of the founding principles of this country – freedom.
Freedom gives me the privilege to write this piece today. Freedom is the choice I had in determining whether or not to go into work or stay home Tuesday after the bombing. I work two blocks away from where the bombing occurred and yes, I was there bright and early Tuesday morning. And freedom is what the perpetrator(s) used against us in detonating the bombs in Boston.
If the brazenness of the attack is at all familiar to any of us, it seems as if when we suffer a terrorist attack in this country, the terrorists seek to turn our freedoms into weaknesses. It’s as if they’re laughing at us “Oh so you think you’re safe at a sporting event with your kids, I’ll show you.”
We can respond in a number of ways to terrorists. After 9/11, we put many precautions in place to protect people from folks who sought to turn airplanes into missiles. We could also stick a particular finger in the air and metaphorically say to the terrorists that this is our country, our freedom, and we’ll be damned if you take it from us. And we could also try a more reasonable approach and ask what risk levels are we willing to accept in order to continue to enjoy the freedoms we have.
I prefer option two, but that’s probably because I’m still raw about a father having nearly his entire family decimated by this tragedy. However we chose to respond to this latest act of terror, I hope we continue to vehemently fight for our freedom. We cannot allow an event like this to give us pause to pull back and cower.
The reality is that there are those who wish us harm, wish our children harm for no other reason than we’re Americans and they aren’t. But as a country, we are the guiding light of democracy and freedom. When terrorists act we must, repeat must, show them that we are more determined to fight for freedom than they are to destroy it.
And what’s more, there’s a whole lot more of us than them.
Don Roach can be reached at [email protected].
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