Quote: "Terrorism"

Ok. I get it. People died, Boston was shut down, people are hurting. Death is always grievous, especially when it's unexpected. Especially when the people dying are innocent civilians.

What I don't understand is why we react so strongly to isolated events like bombs and shootings but we are apathetic and even sometimes vitriolic toward the death and destruction that happens every single day. In our country and around the world.

I mean, three people died. Three. I know that more were injured and I know that three families are grieving tremendously. But still. Three.

Why is it that the violent death of three people is more shocking to us than the thousands of violent deaths that occur everyday? Why are victims of bomb explosions more deserving of our consideration than the victims of domestic or gang violence? For that matter, why are we up in arms about a bomb exploding in Boston when we don't even pause for victims of the same fate in Afghanistan? I'm sorry, but victims are victims, whether they happened to die in a bomb explosion in Boston or not.

Also. Bombs. Why is it that the idea of a bomb exploding has us shaking in our boots, but the ease with which a criminal or psychopath can get a gun is not only ignored, but actually endorsed and supported by a large margin of people?

The American public's image of terrorism only encompasses immigrants, bombs, and public places. And for some reason, this woefully one-dimensional image of terrorism lurks in our minds, posing as the single greatest threat to the American way of life. It has us giving up core rights like a fair/speedy trial and illegal searches/seizures (but fighting tooth and nail to preserve the "constitutional right" to unlimited magazine rounds...)

We have expended so much time, money, and energy protecting ourselves from "terrorism." We have sacrificed so much. Yet we neglect those victims that live in terror every day from other forms of violence. Gang violence, domestic violence, human trafficking, police brutality, hate crimes, even deportment... And that's just in our own country. I haven't even touched Syria or Uganda. Or the terror that we've imposed on innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The summation of rage expressed by the American public about the Boston bombing compared to our complacency concerning other violence in our own country and around the world only confirms our ignorance, our ethnocentrism, and our utter and complete hypocrisy.