On Bombs and Heroes and Choices

Jean Sexton muses:

I  know that to me the Boston Marathon bombings are evil. To plan to hurt people when they are so happy, perhaps watching loved ones at the finish line or maybe after running a good race, is wickedness on such a level that I cannot truly understand it. So many people are hurt and three (at least) are dead, apparently including a child.

Although I am angry, I will not let whoever did this win by remembering the horror. I will remember the first responders who ran toward the injured, heedless of the possibility of more bombs. I will remember the police who headed toward the people who needed them. I will remember the runners who immediately left for the hospitals so they could donate blood if it were needed. I will remember that people opened their homes for the people stranded in Boston. I will remember the ordinary people who threw themselves on strangers and their children in order to protect them. I choose to remember the good and to remember that there were far more people who did good than who did evil. Those people are the heroes of this event.

Long ago I watched Star Trek and it helped shape my beliefs: that most people are basically good, that we can overcome prejudices and fears to learn from "others," that we will dream of the stars and explore them, and that we will assist those who need a helping  hand. While acts such as this bombing seem to indicate that I am foolish to hold those beliefs, the reality is that so many more people affirm those beliefs by their actions. I hope that if the day comes when I must choose, that I choose to live by my beliefs and run to help those who need it as best as I am able.