Boston Marathon/They Want Us Dead

My sister-in-law posted the pictures on her facebook page two hours or so before the two bombs went off. There they were, my two nieces smiling while watching the Boston Marathon somewhere near the finish line.

I happen to have CNN on when the blasts were first reported. I quickly learned that the attack occurred somewhere near that same finish line. My heart sunk, witnesses were reporting deaths and mutilations. I called my wife at work who was unaware of the tragedy. I then waited as my wife attempted to contact her sister, hoping for the best, not ready to think about the worst.

As luck would have it, our family had left the scene shortly before the blasts, my younger niece apparently a little weary after watching thousands of runners cross the line. Thank goodness for small miracles, they were all safe but they had been there, right near Boston's ground zero.

Back in 2001, I was a TV news producer when New York was attacked on 9-11. I covered hundreds of stories during the weeks following that terrorist attack, some gruesome and some bittersweet. The victims, the survivors, their families and so forth. Like most Americans I was touched by these stories and quite frankly thankful that my friends and family weren't among Bin Laden's victims. 

Today, I awake with the realization that not only were Americans targeted again but that my family were also among the living, breathing human beings that someone or something wanted dead. My relief that they are safe is being replaced with furious anger that something like this continues to happen. From 9/11 to the DC sniper to the failed shoe bomber to the Times Square failed car bomb attack to the movie theater murders in Colorado and of course the Sandy Hook school shootings. When will this end?  Will it ever?

Be it homegrown lunatics using guns or international terrorists using bombs, America is at war with a very evil enemy and I'm beginning to believe we as a nation have no way to stop them. They are winning.