Don't get me wrong. Boston's a great town. There's lots of cool stuff to see and experience there. One can visit Boston Harbor, the site of the original "tea party", where the historic ship US Constitution still remains moored. There's the Old North Church, where church sexton Robert Newman (by most acccounts no relation to Paul or Alfred E ) hung his lamps in the steeple to signal Paul Revere for his famous ride (two -- they were heading to Lexington by sea). The original "Cheers" bar of sitcom fame is still there, as is Harvard, and even ancient artifacts like Larry Bird and Neil Diamond are known to hit town once in a while. Yep, there's a lot of great things about Boston, and the locals will be more than happy to tell you -- if you can decipher that weird language they seem to speak.
But there comes a time when enough is enough. Boston needs to shut up. Earlier tonight, yours truly tuned into the start of the Celtics/Knicks NBA playoff game -- and what did we see? They held up the tip-off to trot out a bunch of Boston cops and firefighters, so they could be recognized as heroes. That's wrong. Those people aren't heroes. Much like soldiers, they voluntarily signed up, were thoroughly trained, given the best equipment, and certainly made aware of the potential perils of the jobs they enlisted for. So since when does doing one's job make them a hero? In that regard, my personal hero is George C. Scott. After his portrayal of famed WWII general George Patton in a movie -- Scott won the Oscar for best actor. He refused to accept it, stating that he saw no reason to be glorified for merely doing his job to the best of his abilities.
Sure, what happened towards the finish line of the Boston Marathon last week was a tragedy. Nobody wants to see stuff like that happen. But let's get real. It was two guys that set off bombs. Three were killed and about 180 injured, many quite seriously. Much was made of the fact one of the deceased was an innocent 8-year old boy. Indeed he was, sadly because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but hey -- it happens to other innocent kids across the country every day for various reasons, sometimes intentionally, by other evil doers. They don't get fancy memorials and national attention -- so what's the difference? An innocent kid is an innocent kid.
Millions are pouring in for the other 180 or so people injured in the Boston disaster, because someone is always quick to set up such a "charity" when such a high-profile bad situation occurs. No donor can ever know for sure where their money eventually winds up, but they give it anyway. At that, 180 people injured could easily happen on an interstate pile up during a blizzard, and has, but such events are typically only one-day stories, local at that, and quickly fade from the media glare. The cops and EMS personnel that are called upon to sort those messes out aren't considered heroes. They're just doing their jobs.
But if Boston wants to get over this and recover, as they keep saying -- then why do they keep dragging it out forever trying to play on public sympathy (cha-ching) and making heroes out of guys that were only doing their jobs in the first place?
You've seen the "slogan" plastered everywhere around that town so it can be captured on TV and broadcast to the masses. "Boston strong". No doubt their ancestors were back in revolutionary times. They should rightfully be proud of what their forefathers accomplished.
But as a supposed bastion of American liberty and independence, the Beaners appear to have missed something of great significance. Last week, within a span of a few hours, their town was overwhelmed and basically turned into a police state, complete with martial law and warrantless house-to-house searches. What's scarier yet is -- they cheered. I suspect Paul Revere and his other true compatriots, wherever they are, rolled over in their graves. Perhaps sometime soon modern day Beaners will wake up one day and realize what the greater tragedy was. They just got exposed as being "Boston weak".
In the meantime, the New York Knicks kicked the Celtics to the curb in their own building to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their playoff series. Good. With any luck, they'll polish them off in game 4. Nice place to visit, but I've had enough of Boston and their whining for a while. Stuff happens. Get over it.
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