Boston tragedy should not drown out message of peace

If you have turned on the television any time since yesterday, odds are you’ve heard about the bombings in Boston.

According to various news outlets, there was a bombing in Copley Square just around the finish-line of the Boston Marathon right around 3:00 PM.

At the same time, there were additional blasts at the JFK Library. All in all, there were more than 130 people injured and at least three people dead, including an 8-year-old boy.

At the moment, there are graphic photos circulating the internet of people with detached limbs in a pure state of shock.

In addition, there is a fair share of conspiracy theories as to who instigated the situation. The people of America are all gathered in support of those who have been affected by the tragedy. Google has even put out a service to allow people to search for their friends and family who may have been affected.

Normally, I have never been swayed by stories like this. I don’t know why, it’s just the way I am. But today, as soon as I got on my computer, I saw a picture that had been circulating on Facebook. It was the 8-year-old boy who had been killed by the explosion, now identified as Martin Richard. He was holding a sign that said “No more hurting people. Peace.”

Peace. Wouldn’t it be nice to have peace? Since the beginning of the year, we have all hoped for it, but due to the cruelty of sick individuals, we are far from it.

But it’s not just tragedies like that. The bombings in Boston may be awful, but there are even worse acts of terror happening day after day in the Middle East.

According to the Iraq Body Count project, between the years of 2003 (the beginning of the Iraq invasion) and 2010, at least 12,284 Iraqi citizens died at the hands of 1,003 suicide bombers. There were 442 in 2007 alone. So far in April, there have been three bombings, the most recent Monday, with 55 deaths.

Sometimes I have to stop and ask myself, why does this kind of stuff happen at least once a month? I don’t think that I have gone a month without seeing something on the news related to a mass shooting or a suicide bombing. At what point did the rest of the world decide to turn crazy?

I’ll probably never know why there are people out there who do these kinds of things. I do believe, however, that I speak for everyone when I say that the people who caused these things deserve the highest possible punishment in the book, and then some.

We are living in what is possibly one of the worst eras that our country has ever seen. Day after day, people are killed, robbed, swindled, the list goes on and on. Something went wrong down the line. Our country used to be considered the best country in the world, and now we have turned into a menace. There will come a time when we have to all pull together if we want to make the world a better place.

As Martin Richard said, “No more hurting people. Peace.”