I love people who can't wait to bash others for talking about how tragic something is, because they should be more outraged about some other tragedy which they believe to be more tragic.
"How can you even say this is bad? 3 times the amount of people died in something else that happened!"
The expectation that we should have an emotional response to everything is as unreasonable as it is stupid. The quantifying of tragedy is both insensitive and obnoxious. Not everything is a competition, especially senseless violence and people comparing them and attempting to place values on them should be ashamed of themselves.
Finally, I should mention that regarding the Boston Marathon, theres a great deal of symbolism associated with it. If people are giving more media coverage to it, its not because we think that the lives in Boston are worth more. Its not because a fertilizer plant means less. And I think people know why Boston is getting more media coverage but would rather appear to be more knowledgeable and "correct" about things more than they would prefer to appear to have some sense of class and (yeah, I'm writing it) tact.
I say this a lot here, but people on the internet love to pretend they're smarter and more informed than everyone else. Apparently its a badge of honor but you'd be better served trying to figure out how to conduct yourself like a civilized person, rather than Googling things and trying to be the smartest person in the world. Being smart is a nice thing, knowing how to use that intelligence is better, and knowing when your intelligence is irrelevant (like in the face of a tragedy) in best.
I want to write so much more, but its going to end up off topic. Intelligence is like strength; there a many different ways to measure it, and in the end its how you use what you have. Countless people, who raised a lot of money for charities of all kinds were bombed in Boston. Children, seniors, and by-standers were bombed in Boston. Those bombs went off well after the elite runners finished. They weren't aiming for the best, they were aiming for the most. My roommate had finished. She had a **** time. 3:05:19. She was already done. The people who came in after her got maimed - and those people helped raise money for charities and memorial funds, and kids who are dying of terminal illnesses in hospitals who came to Boston to either get through it, or die in comfort. The measure of the tragedy last week is beyond our comprehension and its sprawls beyond just some people running a race.
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