Boston

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As I was sitting in a chair at Bio Life donating plasma, I was listening to music on my iPhone and scrolling through Twitter as I do for almost every donation.  On my Twitter feed I had read that two explosions had occurred roughly 50 yards and 100 yards away from the finish line at the Boston Marathon, roughly 4 hours and 9 minutes into the race.  After finishing my donation and heading back to my dorm room I tuned on ESPN, where they were showing video clips of the first explosion going off.  About 15 seconds later you could hear the second explosion occurring.  I watched the news conference that was held by the Boston Police Commissioner, and I even watched President Obama give his remarks on this tragedy.  The last I heard there were two fatalities as a result of the explosion and over 100 injured.  One of the fatalities was an 8-year old child.  An event like this is very shocking and very sad.  From what Ive been hearing today as a holiday in Boston known as “Patriot’s Day”, which celebrates the first battle of the American Revolution.  In addition, the Boston Marathon is held annually on this day and the Boston Red Sox even play a home game at Fenway Park.  It’s supposed to be a day of jubilation and freedom and unity, with people from all over the globe coming to Boston to compete in the marathon.  Sadly this year it has been marked with a senseless tragedy that had left many hurt, two dead and the rest of us scratching our heads in utter confusion as to what kind of sick, cruel person would do such a thing like this.

The older we get, the less we look at the world with wonder and awe.  Replacing the wonder and awe as we get older is the shock and horror of all the atrocities and senseless acts of violence that seem to happen almost on a daily occurrence.  The past year alone we’ve read about seemingly endless gun violence happening across the country, constant threats of nuclear war from North Korea, soldiers dying overseas, natural disasters, kidnappings, abortions…this list could go on and on of the atrocities of the world we live in.  What bugs me is when people twist some of these events to fit their own political agenda.  I read a post on my Facebook wall today in which the person said “I have a great idea everyone, lets ban guns... so what to the 'bad guys' do they go out and set bombs up at the end of the boston marathon. Oh but you can't buy a gun so here is a bomb instead. How sick are these people? God please watch over those innocent victims in Boston. How horrible!”  Throwing the gun control debate into the tragedy that happened today in Boston.  Today’s tragedy had nothing to do with the gun control debate, so why bring it up?  There's a time and a place for that, but now right now.  Now is not a time to bring up something that divides us.  Now is the time for unification.  Now is the time for prayer.  I pray that God blesses and protects the victims of this horrible tragedy and that He blesses and protects the victims of all senseless acts of violence and atrocities all over the world.  I also pray for peace in the world and an end to these horrible situations.