What's in a word?

[Plucketeer]

A word like terror.

OK - the Boston incident. Truly despicable and without ANY avenue for forgiveness for the perpetrator(s). I trust that the nation's BEST lawmen/lawwomen are "on it". I refuse to spend the day/week wringing my hands over it.

FIRST irk is the lack of comparisons to the DAILY (as in EVERY day) death toll from guns in this country. Maybe most of those deaths (we won't even TALK about simple injuries) are accidental..... I doubt it. So WHY isn't the daily slaughter count considered an act of "terror"???? The country is PERMEATED with gangs bent on eliminating each other and innocent bystanders - and yet there's a determined effort to NOT let these baddies bear the terrorist badge. There has to be some really determined efforts (pocket-lining) going on to keep the words terror and guns outr of the same sentences. As a shining example - why IS Sandy Hook an unfortunate incident and not a terror event? If someone snuffs me out with a gun, it's murder. If I'm blown away with explosives, it's terror. Hey! I've been on the dangerous end of a chromed revolver. It was terror as I saw it.
I tell ya, I'd volunteer as a subject on a mission to Mars, but I'll bet the NRA already has plans for insuring gun sales there too. Friggin' lunatic society we're forced to share. I want some of those "dumb pills" from that You'Tube video so I can feel like I fit in.

Second irk is that this tragic stunt is gonna DOMINATE the news outlets for at least a few days if not weeks. We'll have to endure the tragic retrospective of the three that died as well as the beleaguered tales of the injured.
This incident will affect me in almost NO ways as regards my daily routine. But the general shafting we've gotten by Wall St. is deftly avoided - along with the assault on my SS & Medicare. We've got a president gambling with my late life livelihood and his flaccid excuse for an attorney general who can only see pot as an affront to our lowly lives.

[FSogol]

1. You win! Most disgusting post on DU.

[lastlib]

2. +1!

Lost me at the part about having to listen to the stories about the people killed & injured--these ARE HUMAN BEINGS! If you don't want to listen to it, plug your g--d----d ears, or turn off the teevee. But understand that these are lives lost--people worthy of respect whose life and dignity have been stripped away by some f*ckwad(s) who knew how to make a bomb.

"Disgusting" is an understatement.

[Plucketeer]

3. Well, OK then

I'll set some time aside to grieve for these folks today. Obviously, I'm NOT spending enough time greiving, but that's probably because not every human beings untimely demise is brought to my attention each day. My bad as well as the MSMs lacking for not focusing on them so's I can spend the requisite reflective moments.

There are people blown away EVERY DAY - almost always without note outside of their own little community. But since this is a prestigious national event, I'm 'sposed to exude reverence and mourning? Don't think I am insensitive to the horror of this, but there's SO much else that goes forward every minute. Maybe what I need is a chart I can reference - one that allows me to discern when, how and to what degree I'm expected to react when the MSM assails me in an effort to outdo the other outlets.
Trayvon Martin....... who the hell would know who that was if it hadn't been for the MSM running with that? The kids blown away in the latest US drone attacks. What's their names? What degree of head-hanging do I commit to them? 4500+ Americans disposed of as collateral for the 2000 and some killed on 9/11. How many of THEIR names and deaths do we fuss over???

The primary point of my OP was that we're (collectively - tho I try to abstain) steered by what some others decide is important. Go ahead and keep on greiving this attack. Oh the humanity and all that. The MORE bru-ha-ha, the better the perp likes it. Their likely revelling in their master stroke today. They were a disgruntled nobody before they pulled this off. Now the world is aware of thier "powers". Let's hope the media STAYS focused on their behalf. God knows there was nuthin' goin' on before those terrible blasts and nothing else will happen until their found and prosecuted.

[tarheelsunc]

8. How often do 100+ people get injured in a single incident? eom

[lastlib]

4. Not any longer--he topped himself w/ #3.....

. . . . . . .

[FSogol]

6. Yes, although that's the last post by him that'll I see.

[lastlib]

7. ditto

[Jamastiene]

5. Well! Aren't you just a bastion of compassion?

Your answer (and you will not like it):
Because everything that happens in the world is not about YOU. If you have no compassion for your fellow human beings, don't expect much in return. You get what you give.

[Plucketeer]

9. Coupla years back....

Yes, I'm one heartless SOB. I drove around on Valentines day evening last year. I was lookin' for homeless folks to hand five or ten bucks to. Outside of the wife, this is the first time I've ever told about this. Maybe my efforts/bucks were ill-placed. That's for some of the geniuses here to decode. I just had it in my head that if you had a shopping cart as the sum total of your worldly possessions, a meals worth of cash on a cold February evening might be a nice surprise - along with a Valentines day wish. I guess part of my motivation was the few months I lived out of a camper shell on an old pickup truck some years back. But y'all could probably analyse my motivation better'n me.
I also get a roll of dollar coins to hand out now and then. Again, in my misguided way - where I probably should be donating to build another shelter or soup kitchen - I favor putting a smile on some down-an-outs face. You wouldn't BELIEVE how many blessings I've been extended - and me an atheist.

You folks either CAN NOT READ, or don't care to. But does it matter how one is attacked? Does it matter if you're one of a hundred - or three thousand - or one? How many dead soldiers have you mourned for? How many dead Afghani/Pakistani kids have we heard the heart-wrenching tales of? Those kids get assigned the compassion of a "collateral damage" characterization. Of course - the last such incident I heard of only involved about 40 people total - not even half of the distressing one hundred mark.

Go ahead and trash me and my views all you like. Yeah - put me on your "ignore list" too. Nuthin' pro-active like putting your head in the sand. I don't think I've ever used that function - because I fear no one OR their words I might find offensive. What a great strategy to repulse that which irritates you - ignore it. Worked for Pearl Harbor - and the twin towers too. The military-industrial complex literally thrives on that approach.