Recently in the history module I'm studying we encountered the US use of the atomic bomb in 1945 in the nuclear attack against Japan, in order to end the war and in Truman's eyes save countless of American and Japanese lives; (whilst at the same time utterly destroying thousands of helpless, innocent Japanese civilians). Cynicism aside, the bomb was supposedly developed as a deterrent rather than a weapon - little consolation to those who suffered greatly at the hands of its detonation, but all that said, it is somewhat short of a miracle that other nations did not decide to utilise their nuclear bombs when they developed them.
After the recent bombing set off in Boston, though seemingly incomparable to the atomic bomb which devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki; it just reminded me of the similarity in sentiments that are caused by mindless humans who see it as imperative to destroy something. In Truman's case, he wanted a short way to end a long war, and in the case of the perpetrators of this Boston bombing, though their motive has not yet been realised, it is clear that they wanted to destroy a perfectly civic transnational event through complete disregard of humanity. It is not particularly natural for humans to want to destroy - it is utterly natural for them to have the propensity to create and to renew and to give. This is why tragedies such as these bombings perplex me a little at the workings (or non-workings) of certain human minds.
As was seen a few months ago with the Sandy Hook school shootings it's all the more devastating when children are involved in hostile attacks, and sadly once again an innocent eight year old child died in Boston this week. The father of the boy gave a statement, and it was one of love and gratitude rather than bitterness and hate, which is admirable. He said,
My dear son Martin has died from injuries sustained in the attack on Boston. My wife and daughter are both recovering from serious injuries. We thank our family and friends, those we know and those we have never met, for their thoughts and prayers. I ask that you continue to pray for my family as we remember Martin. We also ask for your patience and for privacy as we work to simultaneously grieve and recover. Thank you.”
My thoughts go out to any of you who may be reading this who have family over in Boston and may be affected.
Much closer to home for me, (quite literally) were the recent car bombs detonated in my hometown Though nowhere near as devastating, similarly I see a trend in the motivation for such actions. Mindless humans who want to destroy the property and lives of other people just for the sake of it. One bomb was set off just fifteen minutes after I had driven past the site, and thankfully nobody was injured, but that is besides the point. The motivation and intent for injury and damage, whether to property or person, was there.
What comes out of events is the realisation of the horrific actions that mankind can be capable of. However, what also comes out (hopefully to trump the pessimism) is the great acts of kindness and help that come to those suffering from such events. Friends rally round, emergency services do all they can to save lives, police work tirelessly to find those responsible, and whilst part of the restoration involves picking up the pieces left behind on the concrete, it also involves the pastoral care of picking up the pieces of the lives left behind devastated by human inconscience.
It's early days, I know, to be giving optimistic sentiments, especially for those personally involved, but the hope I would particularly like to draw from such tragedies are the wise words of Patton Oswald,
This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it, but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in a while, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness. But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evildoers and, more importantly the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago.
Source for news information: http://sourcefednews.com/3-dead-150-injured-in-boston-marathon-explosions/
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