Boston and Politics

It's been a difficult week for Americans.  There has been death and senseless destruction and horror.  Tears of pain as we watch our fellow Americans hurting and tears of joy as we see the amazing side of humanity that we so often miss.  Many of us are emotional raw, many of us are scared, many of us mourn.  The City of Boston and the entire county has drawn together during grief and sadness.

For the most part, we've seen the good in the world this week, in the wake of tragedy.

And then there is everyone else.

I've tried to ignore it, but it's hard to do.  The assholes who are trying to make this about them, who are trying to use this as a spring board for their own political platform.  If it was just the politicians, I could almost forgive it.  But then you add in the journalists on both sides of the spectrum, along with the all of the internet and their love for making stupid memes.

You know what we should be doing right now?  We should be mourning the people who died in the bombings and the people who were terribly injured.  We should pray (if that's your bag of tea) for everyone who has been affected.  We should be thankful that it wasn't much worse.  We should offer our profuse thanks to the Emergency Workers who handled the situation with speed and aplomb.  We should ask ourselves what we would do in an emergency situation and how we would handle it.  We should be grateful that the bombers are no longer on the street and we should be hopeful that the second suspect is able to shed light on why they did what they did.

You know what we shouldn't be doing right now?  Making this into a goddamn political statement.  Do you know what using a tragedy to stage a political grandstand makes you?  It makes you an asshole.  A complete and utter asshole.

Stop it, ok?  Stop posting stupid cartoons on facebook effectively pointing and laughing at the other side of the political spectrum for being wrong.  Stop making shitty comments about how this tragedy could have been prevented with better gun control or whatever.

And this isn't just directed at the hardcore conservatives.  Oh no.  There are plenty of liberals out there being assholes too.

Stop it.  All of you.  You look like assholes and you kind of make me want to slap you.

You aren't pithy.  You aren't funny.  You are the reason that our country is so divided.  Put aside your stupid political bullshit for, I don't know, even a fucking week, and actually work together.  At the very least, let the families mourn in peace before using their loved ones for your political maneuvering.

Also, before you say it, yes...I know that we aren't alone in having had a rough week.  I know that people are dying all over the world.  I know that soldiers are dying.  I know that terrible things are happening every minute all over.  I know that.  I get that.  That doesn't lessen what we're going through right now.