North of Boston

We live North of Boston in an area known at the North Shore.  Far enough out of town that our lives and jobs were minimally impacted by last week.  The Husband works in Cambridge so he got a bonus day off on Friday when that area was shut down for The Manhunt.  I just cancelled a quiz since several of my students couldn't get to school because they were "sheltering in place."

We don't know anyone who was physically injured during the bombing or its aftermath.  I do know of one 6 year old who was watching his father run the marathon and was still in town and caught in the chaos when the explosions occurred.  He's been having nightmares.  That's the worst of it for me.

So I find myself conflicted.  Should I write a blog post about the Boston Marathon Bombing or not?  [here it is so you can figure that out for yourself] and if so what angle should I take?  I'm not great at writing serious pieces - I try to find the funny in life [and often succeed to the groans and eye rollings of those around me].  So here's my odd balled view of the negative side of things.

Damn those politicians who are forcing me to side with the Terrorists!  You know the ones.  The ones who want to take away all of the surviving terrorist's rights because of the heinous nature of his crimes.  Are we not America?  Are we not supposed to be the pinnacle of freedom and rights for men [or is it just rights of rich, white, heteronormative men].  If we don't treat our criminals better than countries we declare terrorists states then who are we to judge them?

Oh and WTF is up with not requiring background checks for gun purchases?  Please explain to me how you can defend the rights of criminals and nutjobs to purchase guns whenever they want and then demand that all rights be taken away from an American citizen who commits a crime with said guns?  

I hate feeling like I have to stand up for the rights of someone who thought that bombing innocent spectators at the marathon was a good idea.  But I am.  What does that say about me?  More importantly what does that say about the politicians?

On the Positive Side: 

Spring in [finally] arriving.

It's very nice to to far enough away that I wasn't seriously impacted.  I'm very glad we live in a society and a time where events like this are a rarity and we can get life back to normal within a couple of weeks.  [except for the airline security theater]

And now here's a picture of a cat in a box.  Because the internet needs more pictures of cats.