The Nature of Things

The cowardly and senseless bombing of the Boston Marathon continues to dominate our thoughts - the innocents killed, the many more innocents injured, the courageous response of the people of Boston and Massachusetts and of their government. One of the best known residents of Massachusetts who is no longer in government, Barney Frank, responded like this: "Let's be very grateful that we had a well-funded, functioning government...It is very fashionable in America and has been for some time to criticize government, belittle public employees, talk about their pensions, talk about what people think is their excessive health care, here we saw government in two ways perform very well...You know, I never was as a member of Congress, one of the cheerleaders for less government, lower taxes. No tax cut would have helped us deal with this — or will help us recover. This is very expensive." "We're not asking people, 'Do you have have private health insurance or not? Can...

You may have already seen this, but it's worth repeating. Somebody posted it on Twitter after the tragedy in Boston yesterday - words of comfort from Fred Rogers, the beloved Mister Rogers of my children's childhood. Blessings on the helpers, both those whose job it is to help in such events and those ordinary citizens who ran to help, instead of running for cover. They are our heroes. They are what gives us hope that the human race may actually survive, may actually be worth saving.