A Personal Eyewitness Perspective on Monday’s Bombings: The Bad and the Good, Silence and Solidarity

[unrepentant progress]

As afternoon turned into evening and the temperature dropped (it was a cool day to begin with), no one came to Commonwealth Mall to help. No one from the city, from the mayor’s office, from Councilman Ross’ office, or the Red Cross. When I read stories about how organized the response was, I didn’t witness that; in fact, I witnessed the opposite. We were left to fend for ourselves. The mayor’s hotline was useless, and no civilian leadership was present. People were shocked and did not know if we could return to our homes–and desperately wanted to return. People who needed medicine, such as insulin, had no idea what to do. We had nothing but the clothes on our backs. A care station half a mile away does not help, especially if you are elderly with medical devices. Several of us stayed with an elderly neighbor with medical conditions late into the night until we made sure she reached a hospital. We should have had help from city leadership (the rank and file BDP and EMS were superb), but we did not, so we did what we could instead.

In the days that followed, my neighbors and I received no response from any of our elected representatives. You would think this is Rascal King 101: send some ‘heelers down to the affected area and do whatever you can to help. Contact constituents on your mailing and email lists who live in the crime scene perimeter and find out how they are doing. Announce that you or representatives are headed down to the area (or nearby if there are safety concerns) to speak with residents.

Even though this was the focal point of the attack, the proverbial ‘ground zero’, none of that happened. Nothing.

But what is truly disgusting are all of the progressive stalwarts who have no difficulties contacting me by phone, email, and mail when they need my vote–or want my money. Yet somehow when we needed them, they were unable to contact us. We were abandoned and told nothing, and thanks to the lack of information, were unable to make any sort of long term plans. From my particular perspective, the progressive heroes did not do anything to help us. That includes Menino, Sen. Warren (yes, that Senator Warren; I’m really glad I gave to her exploratory committee early on…), and Rep. Capuano, along with local elected officials. There was no one to advocate for us: there was not even a forum in which to file complaints*. Phone calls were not returned.

http://mikethemadbiologist.com/2013/04/21/a-personal-eyewitness-perspective-on-mondays-bombings-the-bad-and-the-good-silence-and-solidarity/