Terrorists Are Cowards

Photo Credit: David L. Ryan, Boston Globe, via Getty Images

Patriots’ Day is a civic observance of the 1775 battles fought in Massachusetts (at Lexington and Concord) that led to the Revolutionary War and the sovereignty of the United States. The Boston Marathon is always run on Patriots’ Day and is the most widely viewed sporting event in New England, attracting 25,000 runners and hundreds of thousands of spectators.

The bombings at this year’s Marathon will forever blur Boston’s patriotic yearly celebration as visions of smoke, debris, and the dead and wounded assault our senses and force us to ask who did this and why the terrorist(s) chose this particular venue at this particular time. Clear visions of 9/11 are also in our thoughts. 

Bombings are the work of cowards who, much like school yard bullies who choose targets they consider weaker than them or chicken hearts who sucker punch unsuspecting victims, target crowds of men, women, and children who are unsuspecting, unprepared, and unequipped for an attack.

Terrorism requires no courage, no heroism, no bravery, no fortitude. Those traits are reserved for the victims, the families, the emergency personnel, the witnesses - the amazing people who manage to jump in and help total strangers during a crisis - the resilient souls of society who somehow manage to go on with their lives while never forgetting the pain, the suffering, and the losses of their fellow human beings. 

Mahatma Ghandi said, “My soul refuses to be satisfied so long as it is a helpless witness of a single wrong or a single misery.” 

We should heed his words.