Amidst Grief - What Went Right in Boston: Post Marathon Blog Debriefing

We Got Him! But, now the debriefing begins - also known as "Monday Morning Quarterbacking".  

In the haste of some to create even more mayhem out of the incident are at least two Republican politicians (John McCain and Lindsey Graham), who should be focused on productive governing, but who are deflecting energy away from real questions raised by this tragedy, that turned into a multiple critical incident event.  Instead of debating what kind of legal trail the surviving terror suspect should receive, these politicians should be asking (a) How did two brilliant young immigrant men of Chechen origin become radicalized against America and (b) how did the two gain access to weapons and materials to make terrorist bombs? 

As a former Emergency Medical Services (EMS) administrator, an extension of my profession as a registered nurse, there's no doubt in my mind that post Boston bombing debriefings will be intense.  Everyone, virtually all who were involved, will be examining what went right and how to improve the public response to the April 15th horrific and evil Patriot's Day Marathon incident.  

What began on the third Monday in April was concluded five days later, bringing the daunting terror to an end- but not the Monday morning quarterbacking (MMQ).  For example, was a lockdown security measure on the entire Boston community necessary?  What constitutes "terrorism", anyway?  Moreover, do terrorists have Miranda rights, especially if they're also American citizens?

During the 5 days of mayhem, four innocent people were killed, as well as the terror suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, the brother of the captured suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev,19, who was found hiding in a shrink wrapped boat in a Watertown, Mass. back yard.  

Innocent lives cut tragically short as a result of this terror included:
1.  Martin Richard, 8, of Dorchester MA who was at the Boston Marathon to cheer his father across the finish line.

Martin Richard 8 killed while watching his father cross the  Boston Marathon finish  line

2.  Krystle Campbell, 29, a Medford,Mass., native and Medford High School graduate living in Arlington, MA, was killed. In Medford, Mayor Michael McGlynn said he spoke with Campbell’s father, William, on Tuesday. "My daughter was a dream daughter. She was just what every father wanted,” McGlynn said.

3.  Lu Lingz, was a Chinese graduate student studying mathematics and statistics and scheduled to receive her graduate degree in 2015. Lu was at the finish line of the race with two friends.

4.  Sean Collier, 26, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus police, was fatally shot on Thursday while sitting in his police cruiser as events began to unfold that led to the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and the apprehension of his brother Dzhokhar, 19, after a massive manhunt.

These four innocent victims should have their pictures pasted on the walls of all debriefing sessions related to the Boston Marathon
bombing.  

Those who MMQ by suggesting the Boston security lockdown was an overreach should consider what it must have been like to witness body parts being blown around chaotic Boylston Street.  Politicians who waste time criticizing the legal proceedings for the living Tsarnaev suspect should, instead, consider how their failure to pass gun control might impact on the rights of other innocent people in the future, who will be caught in harms way, like officer Collier. No one should be given access to guns that put our public safety people at risk!  Second amendment rights created in the year 1789 were never written with the intention of bringing harm to innocent people!

Obviously, a great deal will be learned by the multiple post Boston debriefing sessions, at all levels.  Most important, this incident will be documented to prevent other critical and tragic incidents. Information will be used to prevent seditious groups from plotting their own misplaced outrage of unknown origin.

Meanwhile, in our national grief, the outcome of "Boston Strong" emerged as a victorious theme against all terrorism.  Let's hope the mantra is copyrighted by Boston and never replicated by any other location.  

MMQ must keep in mind how public safety comes before political grandstanding and should trump Second Amendment gun rights, allowing people to own weapons for the purpose of killing innocents.  

What went right in the aftermath of the Boston terror attack includes (a) there were no hostage taking incidents by the suspects because they were rapidly pursued before they could think up more carnage and (b) Americans have shown extraordinary support for the city where our nation's freedom began.

Now, we must move forward to prevent further evil from obstructing our hard earned freedoms.

United in Perpetual Mourning

Although Americans are startlingly divided along partisan political divides, we're increasingly united in grief. It seems we're united in compassion for victims of violence, while skirting around the circumstances that causes our perpetual state of national mourning, brought on by preventable incidents of death and destruction. 

Although terrorism, like what happened in Boston, is difficult to predict, the incident's subsequent events might have been  prevented if the perpetrators didn't have guns.

Our ability to be professional national mourners even makes headlines.  "The Hill" reports:  "Congressional Republicans this weekend took a break from their attacks on President Obama to mourn the casualties suffered in the Boston Marathon bombings and vow swift justice for those who would harm Americans." 

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/295121-gop-drops-politics-vows-solidarity-after-boston-bombings#ixzz2R00qWmI4 

Socialists might ask how it is that many Americans are experts at grieving while entrenched in repressively divisive politics.

This is especially curious when united mourners are asked about how to prevent future grief causing incidents.  It seems simple to say "guns cause preventable death", but the rationale doesn't trump the perpetual mourning.  Grieving unites us while finding a resolution to gun violence causes division.

There's no question that Americans can prevent virtually all gun related deaths by eliminating the cause of these deaths. Nevertheless, Americans are completely polarized about how to prevent gun violence.  

When infections cause thousands of deaths, we demand a cure. Although we can't see infection causing bacteria and viruses, the guns that cause preventable deaths are visibly pandemic in our society.  It's like the Hans Christian Anderson cliche story about the parading delusional Emperor who wore no cloths. Many simply won't see guns as the cause of thousands of preventable American deaths a year.

This week's event in Boston Massachusetts fixated our national attention on the developments of a terrorist attack during a spirited 116 year old Patriot's Day traditional running marathon.  

It turned out, the Tsarnaev brothers, the suspected perpetrators of the heinous attack and murder of innocent people, had access to weapons they used to assassinate a 26 year old police officer.  Their access to weapons caused a week of preventable mayhem, because, the terrorism bombs notwithstanding, the perpetrators continued their carnage with guns.

Subsequent violence could have been averted:

"A massive police operation in Boston ended Friday night, April 19, with the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, suspected of the twin bombing Monday, April 15, at the Boston Marathon which left three dead and 180 injured and the death of a police officer in a shootout out at MIT during the day Friday. Described as armed and dangerous, he was finally hunted down hiding in a boat in a Watertown backyard and injured before he was captured."

"Many hundreds of town, state and federal officers, with helicopters, held Boston in a lockdown security measure for a day to scour the town door to door. Bostonians came out to cheer the police after hearing their mayor Tom Menino say: 'We got him!'  (Tsarnaev's) capture will enable the investigation to answer questions about the motives behind the acts of terror of which the two brothers of Chechen origin, Tzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan, 26, are suspected, and find out who else was involved. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout with police at Watertown earlier."

Without a doubt, the Boston terrorist tragedy was costly. Brilliant lives were lost and many millions of resources were spent in the coordinated dragnet response and conclusion.

Boston's tragedy is among a growing list of national mourning incidents.  We must learn to transpose our unifying grief to productive initiatives, that can prevent future preventable tragedies.  

Americans must continue to demand more regulations to curb gun violence and remove all the lawmakers in government who obstruct common sense resolution to a national pandemic.

We must be as united in ending gun violence as we are in mourning for the rapidly growing list of victims.