Friday, April 19, 2013

The Blame Game

I tried very hard to stay away from the coverage of the Boston Marathon tragedy this week, and managed to do it until this morning when things have just turned into pandemonium. It is so surreal to know that these events are actually happening -- in the real world -- not just on a movie screen.

It's so hard to watch and hear some of the coverage. Some are quick to blame the people of Chechnya. The truth is that there are good and bad people in every group you can think of. Radical extremists on every side of any issue. So it's not fair to blame an entire country or belief system. Are the fundamentally wrong? Maybe, but we don't know that for sure.

Did we condemn teenage boys as a whole after the Columbine shooting? No. Do we condemn all Christians when we hear about a church protesting military funerals? No. Sadly, there are many lost souls out there that are just a few wrong choices away from committing horrible sins against fellow citizens. To me, it's just plain sad and scary.

It's quickly becoming a time in history when we will fear everyone if we aren't careful. Remember the days after 9/11 when we all were hyper aware of things going on in airports? When we wanted to give every other passenger the side-eye in the attempt to determine if they were going to do the unthinkable as we boarded our flights to business or vacation destinations. Are we soon going to be afraid every time we see a black backpack?

These events happen all over the world, and we for the most part let it go as just a news story. It's not until it happens on our soil that we start to wonder why and place blame. Today, I think we're missing the big picture of the victims, the families of those victims, the families of the suspects, the shocked citizens waiting as the events unfold, and the families of the heroes out there trying to get to the truth.

Today isn't the day to pass judgement. We don't have all the facts. Today is a day to just try to hold on to our judgement while we watch the news seeing things unfold in real time. I almost wish we would all turn off our televisions... hold on to our families, and pray that no more people are harmed in the wake of these events.

I'm not faulting anyone for trying to figure out what is going on and why... I just don't want us to jump to the wrong conclusions. I try so hard to give people the benefit of the doubt -- normally to my own heart ache. Lets just try to focus our energies on rallying around the victims in Boston and the people of West, Texas. We can do much more good focusing on them than we can trying to figure out where to place the blame.

1 comment:

  1. You call it the blame game, I call it judgment, which isn't up to us. That's God's area of expertise and the unjust will be dealt with justly.

    It is hard to turn off the news; I was guilty of staying a little too tuned in for the first 2 days, but I was heartsick from it and just wanted to know that colleagues and clients I have in Boston were safe. I've not once speculated as to the reason or motivation. I'm just glad Boston is 2 terrorists safer today than they were a week ago.

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