Thoughts On The Marathon Bombing
I didn't post anything yesterday as a bit of a moment of silence for those who were killed and injured in the bombings that took place at the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon.
Such an absolutely awful day for our city. I remember thinking in the morning that it was such a perfect day for the marathon, the Red Sox game, and just to have a nice holiday.
I won't go on and on but my main thoughts are for those who have died, those who have been hurt, their families, and everyone who had to experience this first hand.
A few thoughts:
The "news" coverage of this event (if you can call it that) has been horrendous. Just another example of why today's media outlets are just trying to get eyes on the screen rather than provide real news. The day the bombs went off I must have heard and seen the same exact information from most major news outlets for the entire day. Replaying and showing the same information that doesn't provide any real info is not only a waste of our time but obviously designed to sensationalize things even more. When I wanted real information, I found it on Twitter. It was just a bummer to see most news outlets churn out the same garbage that didn't provide any real insight into the situation. I mean, do you really think hearing 20 peoples' accounts of what they saw when they were down there helps anything? Give me some real info and stop scaring people more by replaying the same unnecessary crap.
Today, a full two days after the event, authorities claim to have zero leads on who did this. They have asked for cell phone photo and video from people that were on the scene that day. This makes me believe they are grasping at straws at this point. This is scary. Imagine how much cell phone and camera footage they are receiving Combing through it all will be a super long process. If they have no other sources of info then go for it. Those responsible MUST be caught. It is just crazy to me with the technology we have today, officials are asking for footage from people who were there. You can expect more surveillance cameras all over the city after this attack. And I wouldn't be surprised if Boston was one of the first cities to start using surveillance drones, especially during big events like this. Whatever the process, we need to find who did this and bring them to justice and do as much as we can to prevent something like this from happening again. Unfortunately to do so we may need to sacrifice some of our own freedoms.
As I am writing this, an eerie tweet just came through my feed and I wanted to include it. This is obviously not confirmed but just gives you an idea of the things that come through on Twitter before the mainstream news. Who knows if this is the guy but the picture speaks for itself. It shows pieces of what was believed to be the bag that held one of the bombs and a man carrying what seems to be a very similar bag.
*Update #2 4.19.13* - I removed the above mentioned embedded tweet and links. I know now that doing so was wrong. Without knowing the facts and posting pictures of people it can do harm to them when we have no idea if it was them or not. It was wrong of me to do so I removed the items.
*Update 1:06PM EDT* - Some folks have pointed out there are groups on Reddit and 4Chan that are looking deep into the public photos as well. I don't like a lot of the wording on the 4Chan page but both have some interesting info:
In closing I will say repeat what everyone is saying: we are a strong city and we will not let this destroy us. The best way to fight back is to not be scared, to go about your lives as you normally would. We will all get through this and hopefully will come out stronger on the other side.
This picture by Dan Blakeslee has been going around the net and sums things up nicely,
