Last week’s column about the Boston Marathon bombing was going to be my only discussion about that dreadful event. However, after reading, seeing and hearing the prodigious amount of recent commentary from many sources, following are some summary comments.
Perhaps you have noticed that most of the photos presented in the media depict the terrorist brothers as winsome young men with tousled hair, one smiling with beautiful white teeth, the other with the innocent look of a typical teen-ager. A photo in an Internet report shows the younger brother standing casually with four friends in Times Square in NYC in 2012. Only a few months later, this same young man admitted from his hospital bed that he and brother Tamerlan were planning to drive to NYC and set off explosives in that same Times Square.
CUNY Professor Ruth O’Brien posted an article on the Internet entitled, ‘A Day of Terror’ mentioning that the bombing impact would be felt by “healthy, white, high-income earners who are non-smokers and non-drinkers (though maybe pancake-and-syrup eaters) – those who attend the Boston Marathon or watch it.” The piece concludes with the remark that “—I hope we will all be witnesses at the Internal Affairs investigation about undue force.”
What academic bilge! These guys apparently killed an MIT security officer and are suspected of murdering three innocent spectators at the iconic Boston Marathon. At least 14 people endured amputations and more than a reported 200 people were injured. A few days after the Boston Marathon, a driver reported that these suspects hijacked his automobile and threatened to kill him but desisted when he cooperated with them. During the police pursuit, the elder brother, Tamerlan was killed by bullets from firearms of law enforcement people that were protecting the public from further harm. The younger brother, Dzhokhar is reported to have driven over his brother in his escape. He has decided to provide no additional information after being read his Miranda Rights.
The motive remains a mystery. The refugee family with two daughters and two sons was apparently dysfunctional. Over the past several years, family members had been receiving welfare benefits according to The Boston Herald. Husband Anzor had difficulty finding work and his wife Zubeidot was getting into a strict form of Islam. Tamerlan quit drinking and boxing and began devoting time to a more strident form of Islam. Anzor was unhappy and decided to return to the Russian Republic of Dagestan. Joining him recently, Zubeidot may stay there considering that there is a warrant for her arrest on a shoplifting charge in Natick, MA. from June 2012.
It would be easy to reject many of those who seek peace and a life of opportunity in the USA. However, an op-ed in the current weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal tends to dispel some concerns. The author is Kenan Trebincevic, now a physical therapist, who was brought to Connecticut in 1993 with his younger brother by his parents. The brothers have flourished in this country after the family suffered persecution in the Balkans.
More than 500,000 names appear on a watch list of people that have been noted by several U.S. security agencies. The feasibility of providing constant surveillance on a growing list of possible suspects is unrealistic and thus future events are likely to occur. While investigation into the cause of this and other tragedies is vital, the measure of a great nation like the U.S.A. is to honor the dead, bind up the wounds of the injured, bring swift justice to the evildoers and pursue ever more safety for our people and greater freedom and opportunity for all mankind.
– Dick Baynton
