Boston Marathon

Yep, the endurance race in Beantown once again draws near. Roughly 36,000 runners and wheelers participated last year. That's a whole lot of folks trying to cover 26.2 miles. To put that in perspective, 36,000 is about....

1) The maximum crowd Fenway Park can accommodate.
2) The number of times the average urban American is seen on various cameras every day.
3) Chris Christie's all-time record for chili dogs consumed in one sitting.
4) How many hours CNN has droned on about that Malaysian plane, while still knowing nothing.
5) My editor's (boss) typical lunch tab when it's my turn to buy.
6) How many dumb ideas yours truly has put forth in this blog, to date.

And like that. Let's just say it's a bunch.

So now we're getting bombarded with stories recounting last year's Boston Marathon. As you recall, a pair of lunatics set off a couple bombs killing a few people and seriously injuring many others. One of the culprits was eventually killed by the cops, and the other one will never see the light of day again.

It was over. Let the healing begin. But that's not how it works -- is it?

In America, we can never seem to let go of bad things of note. Remember the Maine. Remember the Alamo. Remember Pearl Harbor. Good grief, there are those that still complain about the "holocaust", though it happened on another continent back in the 1940s, not to mention slavery -- which was abolished 150 years ago. And now Boston seems to have joined the list. Remember last year. And next year it will be remember two years ago, and then five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred more might well follow.

To all of which I say -- get over it. Sometimes bad stuff just happens. Since the bombs went off in Beantown last year, there's been countless thousands of shootings, stabbings, rapes, strangulations, child molestations, etc., etc. across the country. And like the Boston bombers, these things were no accident. They were done on purpose, with malice and aforethought, and all that. Many suffered and/or died at the hands of other bad people.

Sure, every life is precious, and when they are snuffed out and/or horribly altered by evil doers, it is a tragedy indeed. But just because such a thing happens during a high-profile televised event like the Boston Marathon, doesn't make the victims any more special than those mentioned above.

Boston would be a great place to be this year to watch the marathon. That is, if you don't mind hob-nobbing with a few thousand feds and every east coast cop they could pry away from doughnut shop duty watching your every move.

And yes, looking back at a tragic event that happened a year ago is understandable. Many run an "in memorium" entry on the obit page of their local newspaper, visit and/or plant flowers at a gravesite, or otherwise re-acknowledge their loss. Yours truly has certainly buried enough friends and family over the years to be quite mindful of the emotions that are involved. But there's also one very hard truth I learned over that time. While many others will sympathize when something bad happens -- it doesn't last for long. Their lives quickly go on, as well they should, because they have enough problems of their own to deal with.

Here's hoping the good folks in Boston get the message. What happened last year at their race was horrific indeed, and a one year memorial is appropriate. But after that, they need to get over it. Again, bad stuff continues to happen to people the world over, and their grief is no less important.

If the Beaners keep bringing this up year after year at race time, they will not be "Boston strong" as they have professed. Quite the contrary. Strong people handle it and move on. Only the wimpy and whiny looking for handouts continue to play the sympathy card every chance they get.....