The Boston Marathon Bombings Five Years Later

Five years have passed since the finish line of the Boston Marathon turned into a war zone when two explosions went off killing three people and injuring hundreds of others. Three nights later, the bombers shot and killed a MIT police officer which resulted in a pursuit which ended in neighboring Watertown the following evening. Authorities killed one of the bombers and injured the other who later stood trial and was sentenced to death.

Most years I would watch the Marathon in person usually after attending the Patriot's Day game at Fenway Park. However that year I opted to take a train to Concord to go to Walden Pond and to Minute Man National Historical Park where the first shots of the American Revolution were fired. It was there that I took a call from my mother who asked me if I was alright. She told me what happened. It still astounds me that my mother living in Thunder Bay, Ontario found out about the bombing before I did.

Then came the stupidity. The punk follower of Alex Jones who showed up at a press conference asking then Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick if this was "a false flag operation." Then there was former Obama White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod who speculated the attacks might have motivated by "tax day", a not to subtle reference to the Tea Party.

Of course, the terrorists were Muslim inspired by the lectures of the late American born al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki. It has long bothered me that President Obama would say that more Americans are killed in their bathtubs than by terrorists. Alas no bathtub death ever resulted in the shutdown of a major American street for more than a week.

When the anniversary is commemorated there is no mention of what motivated the attack. Today is remembered as One Boston Day which is devoted to performing acts of kindness. There's nothing wrong with that in of itself but it is impossible to properly remember the tragedy of the Boston Marathon Bombing without acknowledging its ideological basis.

Let me put it another way. I don't think Charlottesville is going to have a One Charlottesville Day this August. We will be hearing about the evil of white supremacy and rightly so. In that spirit we should also be equally candid where it concerns Islamic supremacy. With that said, President Trump has made such candor impossible with his wholesale condemnation of Muslims.

There must be a middle ground of some kind. There must be a way to acknowledge Islamic supremacy without condemning all a billion and a half plus Muslims. Of course, in our age of polarization such understanding is impossible at present. Will such an understanding be closer on the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombings? Only with more conversation, not less.