to a friend in Boston

and on another world in here--so sorry

There was a time (1996 to be exact) when I was clinically depressed by discovering that there was probable ongoing intergenerational human sacrifice going on on property my primary physician then co-owned, and scared as warning signs against pursuing the issue were laid around my house.  That's when personal violence hit closest to home for me.  Since then, I have sat through trauma I wouldn't have imagined as in custody cases where I have testified, and known survivors of even the unimaginable who have survived and found stronger parts of themselves and gratitude for the security they do enjoy over time.  I learned in victim offender mediation that everyone traumatized by unexpected violence wants first to know WHY?!  And that is what we are struggling with.  I tune in now and then to see whether there is (let alone will ever be) the beginning of an answer (none yet that I see).  Otherwise my national news is turned off (fortuitously, since my local npr stations are both having their spring fund drives).

The way y'all in the Boston area are caring for one another, led by first responders (as with 11 of 33 volunteer firefighters in a suburb of Waco on the eve of the anniversary of what I believe to have been a federal execution, ala drone strikes, on the Branch Davidians, atf footage of which I used to show in class) who were immediately killed and gravely wounded, professional and civilian alike.  The "other world" I see at this almost too fortuitous double tragedy is that we will begin to celebrate the heroism of those of us who care for us in the midst of the neglected infrastructure epitomized by the non-union Texas labor force and plant that exploded with a much bigger blast than two guys managed at the marathon finish line.  In (un)natural disasters like this, I'm hoping, and wishfully perhaps noticing, that our priorities are shifting from economic growth and military supremacy to noticing and attending to our own victims, our own selves.

That's my rationalization and I'm stickin' to it:-)