I have been out of the country on business, and as a result have been less tuned into the news cycle than normally. I am very saddened by the attack on innocent people at the Boston Marathon. I don't know how people are reacting in the States, but my sense is that the country is not reacting with excessive shock and rage. Certainly nothing like our reaction to the 9/11/2001 attack.
My feeling is that our justice system is fully capable of finding, capturing, and prosecuting the attackers.
What I hope the most is that the terrorists are unsuccessful in throwing the country into a state of terror. The point of terrorism is to terrify a country, and if we can absorb this attack, respond decisively against the terrorists without overreacting and letting it absorb our entire national consciousness, and carry on with our lives, we will effectively defeat the purpose of the attack and of the terrorists themselves.
We can refuse to become terrorized. We can treat these people as low life criminals rather than monstrous threats to our way of life.
Or so I hope.
