“In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday the country’s interpretation of the Constitution will “have to change” to allow for greater security to stave off future attacks.”

He also said, “Look, we live in a very dangerous world. We know there are people who want to take away our freedoms. New Yorkers probably know that as much if not more than anybody else after the terrible tragedy of 9/11.”  Yes, Mayor Bloomberg, YOU want to take away our freedoms, and you already have.

Give me your soda and your guns while I reinterpret the Constitution to my liking!

As a reminder of what happened last week in Boston, full scale martial law was in place. Citizens were told to stay in their homes. They were told not to travel to and from businesses, and not to open their businesses. The economy was completely shut down. Let’s be clear, the 2nd Amendment and the 4th Amendment did not exist in Boston last week (arguably, the 2nd Amendment has been ignored in Boston for some time now). Law enforcement claims this was all “voluntary” lockdown, but a citizen video shows a much different story.

Text and video

Editor’s note: That this would happen in what is arguably one of the most the liberal states in the country speaks volumes about the tactics which might be used by a liberal controlled, federal executive branch of government, given virtually any excuse, so long as the necessary assets and resources could be successfully acquired and deployed.

The hundreds of billions Congress has spent on alleged “Homeland Security” might well end up being used to oppress Americans, rather than deterring terrorists.  This past weekend in Boston, it was used to accomplished both.

If it happened in Boston … then with appropriate pretense … there’s little to stop it from happening in your own local community … especially if you happen to live in a blue state. These types of things tend to set precedents, so it’s likely this is only the beginning. And in the end, the only thing capable of stopping it may be “a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state”.

That’s why the 2nd Amendment also maintains that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms arms, shall not be infringed.”

Should push ever come to shove, we can be certain that Joe Biden and his 12 gauge shotgun won’t have much of an effect on armored vehicles … or armored fighting men. And the would be tyrants know it.

That’s why they want to totally eliminate what they term “assault rifles” equipped with “large capacity” magazines … leaving the citizenry armed only with ineffective weaponry that would pose little or no threat to forces that might deliberately trample on the rights of all Americans … much as those same forces already selectively enforce only the laws of this land with which they happen to agree.

Graphic courtesy of Wikipedia

“Sometimes Martial Law Is Necessary”

Thus read a response to my Friday column about the lockdown of 1 million people during the manhunt for one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. I didn’t “write” that so much as I slapped together a bunch of random thoughts.

I just want to say that I am honored by the response that this received by viral “sharing” of it on Facebook. Thank you, everyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some more random bullet points.

1.       On April 19, 1995, a few hours after the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, a coworker commented on how easy it was for people to just “drive up anywhere”. I asked her if she would prefer to live an alternative kind of society where moving around freely was not an option. Boston on April 19, 2013 was just such a place. The inability to travel freely is a common feature of all totalitarian societies.

The Berlin Wall.

    2. If a million people in and around Boston can be put on lockdown for one day, why can’t a million people elsewhere be put on lockdown for 3 or 4 or even more days sometime in the not-too-distant future?

       3. And why were just Boston and some surrounding towns on lockdown? I mean, like, the suspect could have fled to Cape Cod, Worcester, Springfield or Williamstown. Or, he could have crossed state lines. Why not put all of New England and New York on lockdown?

  4. “But what if the terrorist was on the loose in your neighborhood?” you ask. “Wouldn’t you feel safer being on lockdown?” No, actually I wouldn’t feel safer at all. And while I would certainly appreciate notice that an intensive manhunt was underway, I would also like the opportunity to get the hell out of my neighborhood for my own safety. And you can’t very well do that when you are on lockdown.

5.       5. If you are a “conservative” who approves of the Beantown Lockdown, DON’T EVER complain to me again about nationalized health care, the IRS, gun control or any other big government program. None of these ever resulted in a million people not being able to leave their homes. You deserve every ounce of big government you get.

They hate us for our freedom.

6. 6. What  is the next step after a lockdown? Drone strikes? All of America is now a battlefield in the war on terror. And there could be a “suspected militant” right in your neighborhood – a scary looking guy with a name you can’t pronounce from a country you can’t find on a map where the military budget is less than the payroll for the Red Sox infield.  So what if 100 innocent people are killed by a Hellfire missile “if it gets the bad guy.”

7.   7. Why not also internment camps for Chechens, Muslims, etc.? I mean, like, desperate times call for desperate measures.

8.      8. “Sometimes you have to give up liberty to have security.” They sang the exact same song in Germany in 1933 as they gave up their liberty for 12 years of sicherheit.

9.      9. And if you don’t think Uncle Sam would kill innocent Americans en masse, think again. And consider the Branch Davidians, the Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek Massacre, Wounded Knee and the War of Northern Aggression from 1861-1865.

        10. About 40 people are murdered every day in America. About 280 have been murdered in the last week. Why do the 4 Boston killings – 3 at the Marathon and the cop at MIT – get all the attention? (And this is not to minimize the grief of those affected by these killings.) Fourteen people perished in the plant explosion in West, Texas, and that has not been nearly as much of a showstopper as the Boston bombing.

11. If you think the warrantless searches during the lockdown were “reasonable” because there was a manhunt for a terrorist, do you likewise believe that it is “reasonable” for TSA to molest children at airports?

     12.If you tolerate locking down schools for the safety of the students, why wouldn’t they take the next step and put whole cities on lockdown?

Aurora, June 2, 2012

    13.If you approve of the police in Aurora, Colorado – where I live – detaining 40 innocent people for 2 hours in order to apprehend one bank robbery suspect, why wouldn’t police restrict the liberty of 1 million people for a whole day?

      14.   If you cheered on the police authorities in Southern California as they shot at innocent people as they hunted down and killed Christopher Dorner with no due process, why wouldn’t cops put entire cities on lockdown to catch a fugitive?

      15.   It does not surprise me at all that so many chowds celebrated the capture of Dzhokar Tsarnaev while not minding at all that they had been under martial law for the better part of a day. Since 9/11, many millions – perhaps even a majority – of Americans have gladly accepted – in the name of “safety” and “security”: warrantless searches and spying, the suspension of habeas corpus, sexual assault as a condition of travel, rampant police brutality, indefinite detention without any semblance of due process, severe restrictions on peaceful protest and surveillance drones in our skies watching our every move. Are predator drones next?

     16. You will note that I have not mentioned the names of any politicians here. It does not matter at all whom we elect anymore. When you grant unconstitutional power to a president that you like and trust, please know that the next president will inherit and, inevitably, augment these unconstitutional powers.

     17.  “The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism.” – U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis, Ex Parte Milligan (1866)

     18.   At the “4/20” marijuana rally in Denver on Saturday, 2 people were shot and a third was grazed by a bullet. As this column goes to bed, the suspect remains at large. Should metro Denver – including Aurora, where I live – be put on lockdown for everyone’s “safety”?

      19.   If you profess a belief in Jesus, who would He subject to martial law?

      20.   Do you believe everything the government and their media lapdogs tell you?

Preparing for Major Terrorism Exercises Three Cities

SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — Roosevelt Elementary School was placed on soft lockdown Monday morning after police received a report of an armed man in the school’s parking lot.

“There is no direct threat to student safety and the lockdown protocol is simply precautionary,” said a statement on the Granite School District’s Facebook page.

A teaching assistant said the armed man was walking between cars in the parking lot at around 9 a.m., and racked the slide of the gun, according to Sgt. Ken Hansen, Unified Police Department.

“Observed somebody going through cars in the parking lot, he noticed the person had a handgun so he kept an eye on him to keep him away from the kids,” Hansen said.

Administrators called police and the school was placed on a soft lockdown, meaning the school’s outer doors were locked, but classes continued as police searched the area near the school, which is located at 3225 S 800 E.

“Business is proceeding as normal indoors and students are just going about their normal activities but obviously indoors as opposed to outdoors,” said Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley.

The suspect was described as a white or Latino male in his 20s, around 6 feet tall, 170 pounds. He was reportedly clean-shaven with dark hair. He was wearing a tan coat, blue jeans and black shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 801-743-7000.

Read the entire statement from the Granite School District:

Roosevelt Elementary in South Salt Lake is currently on a precautionary soft lockdown due to a suspicious individual seen in the neighborhood.

There is no direct threat to student safety and the lockdown protocol is simply precautionary.

A soft lockdown keeps all students within the building and prohibits individuals from coming onto campus. School is proceeding as normal within the building.

As such, until the lockdown is completed, no visitors, including parents will be permitted onto campus.

Law enforcement are searching the neighborhood and Granite PD is assisting at the school.

Parents can contact the school directly if they have any questions. Thank you for your patience and assistance as we work to keep children safe.

As an update, the lockdown protocol will continue as a precaution throughout the remainder of the day. Parents and visitors will need to go to the main entrance and will need identification to enter the building. Granite PD is on scene assisting administration. ONCE AGAIN, NO THREATS HAVE BEEN MADE AND STUDENTS ARE SECURE. School is proceeding as normal.

I appreciate every ounce of these authorities putting their lives on the line to find the remaining Boston Bombing terrorist, but I just can’t shake being disturbed by how they kept an entire city on lock down with such ease.

Related: Lockdown in Boston

Since that time, there have been memorials, other marathons, much pontificating, the identification of the suspects, a shootout between the suspects and police, which left one brother dead, and a lockdown on the city of Boston as police hunted the other suspect and found him hiding in a boat.

The surveillance tapes proved to be the key to identifying the bombing suspects.

I have felt uncomfortable in the past with surveillance cameras everywhere on our streets and inside businesses.

It can leave a creepy feeling of always being watched and never being able to escape the constant gaze.

And about gazing, I did a story on London artist Charles Vincent about his art and a piece called A Gaze Returned, which examines surveillance and its effect on us. It’s a provocative artwork.

You can read the story and see his sculpture here. http://www.lfpress.com/entertainment/stage/2011/06/17/18296461.html

I’m wondering about your thoughts on ubiquitous surveillance. In the Boston case it helped authorities, but is it also creating a paranoid society?

There will be a moment of silence today in Boston at 2:50 p.m., when the first bomb exploded.

This is a Brookline Police Department (BPD) Officer. Apologies for confusion..Awesome job and photo!! http://t.co/61QJg8mxKv—
Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 21, 2013

My fav shot from the Boston police state was this goose-stepping shock trooper delivering milk to a family cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-5…—
Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) April 21, 2013

Heh.

God bless police officers.

Heartwarming photo. MT @SimonOstler: @Boston_Police: Officer delivers milk to family with young kids during lockdown. http://t.co/tIDyxqNRhy—
Vanessa Thomas (@_VanessaThomas) April 21, 2013

Boston police officer delivers milk to family during lockdown who had 18 month old baby #LOVE http://t.co/HUZHvIpYGK—
NILF (@FallonShrugs) April 22, 2013

Love this! MT @Boston_Police: BPD Officer delivers milk to a family w/ young children in Watertown during lockdown.. http://t.co/o1tVCGAJhE—
Elizabeth Eaton (@EatonNutrition) April 21, 2013

Love this: RT @Boston_Police: Officer delivers milk to family with young children in Watertown during lockdown.. http://t.co/mPqbw9OtGH—
Meg Coyle (@MegCoyleKING) April 21, 2013

Love this photo! Boston police officer delivers milk for mom & baby who couldn't leave home during Friday lockdown. weknowmemes.com/wp-content/upl…—
Kevin Messenger (@kmess65) April 22, 2013

We love it, too.

Related:

Full Twitchy coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing

Center for a Stateless Society

building public awareness of left-wing market anarchism

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Posted by Thomas L. Knapp on Apr 16, 2013 in Commentary

While watching coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath, I couldn’t help but notice multiple uses and variations of the word “lockdown” (e.g. “Boston is locked down”). Nor could I help thinking that I’ve been hearing that word used more and more frequently over the last few years, and finding its  connotations are troubling.

Internet etymological sources inform me that the word “lockdown” emerged in the 1940s to describe mechanical processes such as shutting down machines in an ultra-safe manner for maintenance (by the time I worked in factories, the term was “lockout,”). Its most well-known usage, however, dates from the early 1970s. Until the last decade or so it was nearly unique to “correctional institutions.”

A prison lockdown occurs in the context of a riot or other exceptional disciplinary situation: All inmates are ordered to their cells (as opposed to the cafeteria, the exercise yard or, in prisons which operate slave labor schemes, their work stations). The facility is temporarily closed to visitors, deliveries, etc. — only “essential personnel” may enter, leave, or move within the grounds.

A useful term to describe a common, or at least standardized, process. But in the early 1990s, the term vaulted over the prison wall and into more general usage. Google’s Ngram service, which traces the frequency of words in books, graphs slow, steady increase in the term’s appearance until 1990, followed by a  ”hockey stick”: Between 1990 and 2008, use of the term “lockdown” in English-language books ballooned to ten times that 1990 baseline.

Suddenly lockdowns were no longer just a prison thing. They became a school thing, and then an area, neighborhood, city thing.

As of Tuesday morning, April 16, 2013, Google News reported more than 50,000 uses of the word “lockdown” in the news media in the previous 30 days.

“Salem [Massachusetts] schools hold lockdown drills.”  “[Dallas, Texas] elementary to dismiss at normal time after lock down” (for nearly five hours because of a single shooting nearby, but not on campus). “Fallston [Maryland] High, Middle schools briefly placed on lockdown” (because a “suspicious person” was reported nearby). Lockdowns at hospitals. Lockdowns at military bases. Neighborhoods locked down for politicians’ social calls and cities locked down for politicians’ funerals.

Ironic? Portentous? Certainly not mere coincidence. The term is becoming so common because it works. It’s descriptive. Not just of the process, but of the societies in which the process is applied.

America in particular and western societies in general have, over the same decades producing that increased usage, degenerated into open air prisons. The inmates — us — although under nearly ubiquitous surveillance, are mostly left free to wander around (not all of them; last time I checked, one of every 32 Americans was “in the correctional system” — imprisoned or on parole, probation or house arrest), as long as we can produce paperwork on demand and “explain ourselves” to the guards if interrogated. And, of course, until the guards pick one of fifty bazillion reasons to “lock down” the block we happen to be on.

That’s not freedom. It’s highly conditional sufferance. And until we reject the lockdown life and abolish the states which impose it, things are going to get more and more conditional and less and less tolerable.

Citations to this article:

• Thomas L. Knapp, Living a lockdown life, Deming, New Mexico Headlight, 04/18/13

First and foremost, martial law does not work.  Following a shootout with police in the city of Watertown, the suspect left the scene via his previously carjacked SUV.  The abandoned vehicle was soon found and Tsarnaev was believed to be on foot and/or in hiding.  Immediately, an unimaginable police presence was felt throughout Watertown, and the entire greater Boston area was placed in an essential shelter in place.  Residents were ordered to stay home.  Businesses kept their doors closed.  Public transportation was halted.  Taxi service was suspended.

For the better part of Friday, Watertown was essentially a police state.  Multiple law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local level were on the scene, including military personnel.  Yes, the United States military was being used, in conjunction with others, to occupy an American city.  

If you’ve never heard of the Posse Comitatus Act then you may be part of the problem.  Passed in 1878, this law limited the scope of the federal government in the use of the military when it comes to enforcing laws on US soil.  A 1981 addendum does allow for the national guard when acting on orders from the Governor but this went further than National Guardsmen assisting with moving sandbags or distributing food and water to those in need.  It was entirely reminiscent of the movie “The Siege”. Only too real.

This is the Boston Police. You are safe… as long as you never leave your home again.

The police established a parameter in Watertown and began what can only be described as urban terror as they searched homes with automatic weapons drawn while leaving frightened residents largely in the dark.  This dragnet included tanks, armored vehicles, and police helicopters keeping Watertown’s citizenry hostage during the day long search.

Eventually, as darkness loomed ahead, the police retreated citing that the suspect had left the area.  Sadly, they were wrong.  They just didn’t look in the right place.  While I’m not an expert in law enforcement tactics, it does make sense to establish an outer bound to the search area that fits the outer limits of the suspect’s physical ability.  Assuming an uninjured, 19 year old male in good physical shape, one can calculate the maximum he could have traveled on foot in the time it took to mobilize forces.  If you’re going to violate the civil liberties of millions, specifically the 33,000 people in Watertown, then do it properly and achieve your results.

Another disadvantage of the police takeover of Watertown is that it took 33,000 sets of eyes off the streets, off the neighborhoods, and yes, off the recreational vehicles in back yards.  It wasn’t until the net was lifted that Tsarnaev was found.  That was due to the vigilance of David Hansberry, who noticed blood on his boat cover after finally being allowed to step outside his own home to smoke a cigarette on his property.  Hansberry promptly alerted authorities to the unusual state of his watercraft and within a few hours the suspect was in custody.  We didn’t need martial law.  We needed a day long episode of America’s Most Wanted with a tip line scrolling the bottom of the screen.  John Walsh certainly would have been a more competent host than Wolf Blitzer.

Obviously we didn’t look in the boat. Who hides in a boat… on land… expecting to get away?

The second lesson we’ve learned is that the private sector is invaluable in solving crimes.  From the use of the Lourdes and Taylor security footage, to photographs and video submitted by the public, to suspect identification, to the vital tip given by Mr. Hansberry, we must never get so arrogant as a society to think that law enforcement can protect us from or capture evil men alone.  

Staying vigilant is the best method of keeping oneself safe.  Being ridiculous about security is not.  Not every abandoned bag is a bomb.  Since the attack on Boston several ‘suspicious’ backpacks have been spotted around the nation causing universities to close or other public disturbances.  These bags were found to contain items as innocuous as beer or books.  Yes, books in a book bag have now become a law enforcement matter.

Hopefully this has also given light to one fundamental flaw in technology and that’s in the area of facial recognition.  For some reason, humans (actually even the family dog) do a better job at identifying a person by their face.  In spite of the ability of  modern computers’ computations per second and the comprehensiveness of databases it still is hard for machines to recognize who is who in less than ideal photos.  If you’re young and have a mind for ingenuity then you could do your government a favor by developing a better facial system.

Third, I’m sad to say that it appears as though the Tsarnaev brothers may have accomplished the goal of terrorism and goaded the police into assisting them with that effort.  From the bombing through the capture of Dzhokhar, the greater Boston area experienced terror like no city since 2001.  Once the trail led to Watertown images of tanks and heavily armed government personnel will not leave the minds of the townspeople for some time.  Terrorism isn’t in the act itself, but, in the promulgation of fear.  We, as a people, were afraid for the people of Watertown.  I can’t image how frightening it must have been to have a known bomber was in their neighborhood, and enough men and arms to take over France walking their streets.

Many people, including legislators of this nation, want Tsarnaev held as an enemy combatant of the state.  A United States citizen being denied his rights as afforded to him by the Constitution is just not excusable.  The Bill of Rights is there to protect all citizens regardless of their nation of origin or the nature of the crime they have allegedly committed.  This becomes a very slippery slope in which most criminals could eventually be held without access to legal counsel and bail, while being tortured, or forced into incriminating themselves. 

All evidence points towards Dzhokhar’s guilt but that still does not mean he does not deserve a trial deliberated amongst the good people of Boston. The United States Attorney trying the case and United States Senators should not publicly proclaim to want his rights violated, subverted, or illegitimized because they see him as a bad guy.  Yes, I’m talking to you Carmen Ortiz and Lindsay Graham.  You took an oath to defend the Constitution.  Do it.

Never too early to start working the (potential) jury.

Regardless, the Boston bombings have led to the deaths of at least five people (yes the elder bomber counts, as he is deceased) and injured countless others.  Yet it affected millions of New Englanders and hundreds of millions of Americans to this day.  Much like 9/11 before it we vow never to forget it and I hope that’s true.  Even more so I wish that we don’t give up the core of who we are as a people simply because of the heinous act perpetrated by two individuals. 

Yes, as law enforcement embarked upon a massive manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving assumed perpetrator of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing (his brother and co-suspect, Tamerlan, had been fatally wounded in an overnight shootout with police), the Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, took the extraordinary step of asking all residents of Boston and surrounding communities of Watertown, Cambridge, Belmont, Newton and Brookline—roughly one million citizens in all—to lock themselves inside their homes until further notice.

The governor officially lifted the “shelter in place” request around dinnertime, and not more than an hour later, Tsarnaev was apprehended and the nightmare was over.

The relative swiftness of the whole operation saved us the trouble of having to ask a lot of deeply uncomfortable questions, both practical and philosophical.

Now that the drama appears to have drawn to a close, let us ask them anyway.

Getting right to the point:  Was the near-complete lockdown of six towns and cities a wise and reasonable decision?

As a consequence of keeping all residents indoors, authorities effected the shutdown of all businesses, all restaurants, all public transportation, all entertainment and all sporting events—a suspension of commerce expected to cost the region several hundred million dollars in lost revenue.

Sooner or later, we have to ask:  Was it worth all of that to hunt down and capture a single human being?

In general, under what conditions would such a move be unquestionably justified, and when would it not?  Where might we draw the line—or is this not something we could possibly know in advance?

In 2007, Mitt Romney expressed the view—not entirely unpopular then and at other times—that “it’s not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person”—and this was when the person was Osama bin Laden and the theater of war was outside the United States.  In certain contexts (if not that one), there must surely be wisdom in those words.

Sticking with the events of last week:  Suppose it took two days for authorities to locate and detain Tsarnaev, instead of one.  Would a lockdown have been as justified on Day Two as it apparently was on Day One?  How about on Day Three, or Day Seven?

Had Tsarnaev managed to tiptoe out of town, completely slipping through the FBI’s fingers sight unseen, how many billions of dollars of revenue would the Boston area have been allowed to lose—how long would a million residents be instructed to remain frozen in place—before the authorities decide that enough is enough?

The immediate justification for the “shelter in place” call—particularly in Watertown, where Tsarnaev was (correctly) believed to be—was that it would make it easier for law enforcement to methodically comb the neighborhood for clues and evidence—in other words, to do their jobs with minimal interference.  But was fully clearing the streets truly necessary to do this?  Could they not have completed this task in a relatively normally-functioning environment?  Isn’t it a bit worrying to think that they couldn’t?

It is true (so far as we know) that “shelter in place” ended before the capture of Tsarnaev was confirmed, suggesting that it was a strictly short-term measure (as it is designed to be) that was never going to last beyond Friday.  In fact, this only serves to beg further inquiries.

We were told, for instance, that the public transportation aspect of the shutdown—service was suspended on buses, subways, commuter rail and Amtrak—was to prevent Tsarnaev from spiriting away at high speed.  If we accept this premise, wouldn’t we then need to keep accepting it until the moment he was found, no matter how long it took?

I could go on, but if I haven’t made my point by now, the effort is probably futile.

As I am not the first (or last) person to observe, we Americans are extraordinarily lucky not to have to face these kinds of questions more frequently than we do.  New York Times columnist Ross Douthat rather eloquently tweeted, “If terror attacks were even slightly more common, [this] response would be [an] unsustainable folly,” adding that such an unprecedented event “is a luxury of domestic peace.”

So it is.  And with continued good fortune, the prospect of bringing life in the big city to a screeching halt will remain the exception, not the rule, in regards to how we respond to random acts of terror.

And yet I cannot help but wonder:  What will happen—and what should happen—the next time?

On 9/11 planes were transformed into weapons and used against the American people.  As a result, America learned that cowering to terrorists was no longer a acceptable default action to diffuse a major crisis and that if you are going to go down, go down swinging.  The Obama Administration, Homeland Security, and the FBI have apparently forgotten that lesson.

The recent Boston bombings are case and point.  The Government clearly identified the bombers within hours.  Then, for whatever righteous reasons, they decided to handle this themselves, effectively paralyzing an entire city.  In the 12th hour, when the political downside  exponentiation was accelerating, it occurred to them to cut bait and turn critical intel over to the American people being held hostage not by the bombers, but by the unlawful American Government lockdown.

Hours later the terrorists were no longer in control but were on the run.  Soon one was killed, and the other one cornered.  One day later the second terrorist was neutralized and the known main threat rescinded.

This was all avoidable.  The evidence of the terrorist photos should have been put in the public eye not necessarily in real time, but once the backpack carriers were positively confirmed, which was early.

It was the American people that were attacked, their way of life, and they deserve the brutal truth even when it’s not convenient for politicians.  If this country is going to continue as a free nation and expect American’s to handle the high cost of freedom, it certainly also deserves the respect to have the facts kept out in the light of day where citizens can make clear judgments and decisions for themselves, instead of being unlawfully locked down and treated like sheep.

LOCKDOWNS are primarily a prison procedure employed to control the movements of inmates, or to prevent them from, you know, rioting and shit. So it’s something traditionally done by guards and authorities who control every aspect of their subjects’ lives. As if it wasn’t unsettling enough that young people in school are now subjected to regular lockdown drills, subservience training, made necessary possible by periodic school shootings, the lockdown has rapidly become an accepted police tactic as a means to control the ostensibly free general population.

It was disturbing during the Virginia Tech shooting to learn that the campus was being locked down. While an armed murderer, in the midst of his attack, was still free to roam the grounds, and gun down additional people, authorities trapped students faculty and staff in the line of fire, prohibiting them from answering the call of their basic human instincts of fight or flight. At the same time, they prevented parents of students and other civilians from entering the grounds, denying their instinct to rush to the aid and protection of their loved ones.

Even more disturbing than this suppression of people’s basic survival instinct, even more disturbing than the successful lockdown of the 7th largest metropolitan US television market this past week in Boston, is the way people celebrated as the manhunt was ongoing and in the days since. They can’t thank the Boston police and the Feds enough. But what did these authorities do? They imprisoned an entire city. No, we’re all already prisoners of this police/prison order that has glommed on to society. What they did was lock an entire city of inmates in their cells to prevent unrest. To make their own jobs easier.

The tears of shrapnel and loss of limb and kin are nothing new to our enemies’ civilian populations. Are people really so dull to the risk that raining bombs daily and continuously on the other side of the world might eventually come home to roost? Are people so comfortable with the idea of being locked away from such a danger that it’s worth suppressing what instincts we have that tell us what it means to be under attack?

A week ago today, I had scrambled to meet the latest in a string of intense and nearly humanly impossible deadlines for work, and got in the car at 11 a.m. to pick Emma up from a race.  She didn’t row in that race, so she was able to leave early.  She got in the car and promptly fell asleep while I drove us to Western Mass., to the first in a string of college tours.

I felt bad leaving Jules behind.  We invited her, of course, but she really didn’t want to come.  She’d done one college tour with us, and said it was just so boring, it made her feel snarky about the school, and she LIKES the school (Wesleyan), so she doesn’t want to feel snarky about it, and she thinks doing college tours when she’s a Freshman will be detrimental to her own process, when she’s ready.  Seemed reasonable, and David was staying home, so she did, too.

However, for the 10 days prior to this trip, Jules had been at home alone a LOT.  Because 10 days before, she got beaned in the head by a softball.  That was awesome.  She called me after softball practice and complained that she had to just SIT there the whole time, because her coaches “freaked out,” and asked her all kinds of questions (what’s your name? what’s your address? what year is it?  who’s the president?), and made her go to the trainer to get some ice.  She said she felt fine.  She seemed fine, although she had a bump on her head.

But then, mid-day on Thursday, she called me to say she felt dizzy and nauseous and couldn’t focus in class.

Then I had a freak-out.  A working-parent freak out.  It was 11:30, my kid obviously had a concussion, and I had a major filing deadline and a court hearing.  I called David, but I couldn’t reach him.  I called the doctor, and they said, “she shouldn’t be home alone, if her symptoms continue to escalate, she could slip into a coma.”  So I promptly closed my office door, sat at my desk, and started to cry.*  David called me back, he left work, he took Jules to the doctor, and hung out with her for the rest of the day, and the next day as well.  And I met my deadlines.  Over the following week, she was able to escalate her activity, and by the time I left on Sunday with Emma, Jules was back to 100%.

So – Emma and I got on the road.  We did one college tour (Amherst College) that afternoon, and drove through 2 other campuses – UMass Amherst and Smith College.  Then we went to my parents’ house, and had steak and baked potatoes and broccoli, and Emma made cookies, and I drank my father’s wine.

Monday a.m., my mom made Emma and I breakfast, and we got back on the road.  First, a morning tour and info session at NYU.  Then, in the afternoon, a tour and info session at Barnard College.

And that’s where we were — on the lawn at Barnard College, standing right outside the library, listening to our tour guide talk about her creative writing class, when my phone vibrated.  I took a peek, and it was an NBC news alert.  ”Reports of Explosions at the Boston Marathon Finish Line.”

There was quite a moment of disconnect.  I get news alerts all the time.  Shooting in Colorado, shooting in Newtown (the town next to where I grew up in CT, by the way), earthquakes, actor deaths.  Always somewhere else.  This time it was “somewhere else,” but “somewhere else” was home.  [not to say that Newtown didn't have that kind of feeling, too.  It did, but still different.]  My brain made some very obvious “clicks.”  Like I could feel them.  Boston.  Home.  Juliette.  David.  I texted J immediately “you okay?”  She texted back “yes, I’m at home” and then instantly called me.  I pulled myself away from the tour to talk to her, and she was a little shaken up because (a) 2 bombs went off 3 miles away from our house, and (b) if her day had gone as she initially planned it, she would have been a block away from the explosions  - shopping on Newbury Street.  If she had been on Newbury Street, she wouldn’t have been injured, but she would have been in the midst of the chaos, and I think it would have been horrible for her.

I had determined not to tell Emma until after the Barnard tour/info session, so she could focus.  But then I blurted it out anyway.  It was a struggle for both of us to listen to the virtues of Columbia’s sister school, and we bickered during the info session when I made her put her phone away.  10 minutes later, though, a woman yelped and said, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but there was a bombing Boston, and I need to leave!” She ran out to call her family.

Emma and I had intended to stay in New York for a couple of hours after the tour, but we were in no frame of mind to wander the city.  We got back in the car and drove to my parents’ house, listening to the news the whole way, where we could watch the news, and try to piece together what was going on.  It was so surreal, and so horrible.

Nevertheless, we were able to focus on Tuesday’s 2 tours/college visits, and were very happy when we got home to be with David and Juliette, and to be back home.  Funny how despite the horror and pain that was taking place at home, we both wished we were there. You’d think we’d be relieved to be out of town, but we were not.

When i got back to work on Wednesday, it was to continued pressure of deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.  Things are so busy in our firm right now, and the vast majority of the 30+ lawyers are working at break-neck speed.  I’m personally not happy with this pace.  I like to be busy.  I like deadlines.  But this has been all-out for over a month.  It’s not ok.

I thought I’d have everything under  control in time for the weekend, though.  My Friday would be busy, and possibly long, but I’d be able to go to Emma’s regatta on Saturday, and I was thinking maybe – just maybe – I could take Sunday off, too.

On Thursday night, David had to work late.  He is managing a campus book store at a nearby college, and they were having a 7 p.m. event.  He left work at 9:15.  but then something happened, and he thought he was going to have to go back.  In the end, he did not. I was exhausted, and knew I had a long day in front of me on Friday, so at 10:30, I went to bed.

At 4 a.m., I woke up to pee.  I looked at my phone and saw 2 seemingly disconnected items (gotta love these NBC alerts):  (1) a campus police officer was shot, a mere HOUR after David left the exact address where it happened, and (2) there were gun shots in another town – the one where we go to Target.  ”Weird” I thought, and went back to sleep.

At 5:30, my alarm went off, and then another NBC alert came through:  The T was shut down.  Then the pieces all came together – everything was related, and the world was GOING INSANE!!!  I woke David up, and we were trying to figure it all out – first the big picture, and then how it would impact our days – with sirens going off in the background, with new reports of police activity taking place at one of the neighborhoods that borders our town and Boston, and where I almost NEED to drive, bike, walk, commute through to get to work.  It was feeling very close to home.

How could this be real life?

And I had panic over the fact that one of the deadlines I was dealing with that day was some initial appeal filings in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  While federal and state courts in Boston were closing as quickly as the T and the cabs and the businesses, the court I was dealing with is in Philadelphia, and is known to be rather unforgiving when it comes to deadlines.  I was thinking that I would have to drive to work, since I couldn’t take the T.  At that point, my town was not on the list of areas being told to stay inside.  My firm had sent out a robo-call saying that while the office was open, everyone in the areas being told to stay inside should NOT come in, and anyone who takes the T to work was excused for the day.

Then my town was added to the list.

Our managing partner sent an email saying he really wanted everyone home.  Please let him know if you have critical deadlines.  I had to write back with a pretty lengthy email with my 3 critical deadlines.  While I was drafting it, my assistant called my cell, equally stressed about the Third Circuit filings.  Two of the partners (the managing partner and the partner who’s on the appeal with me) wrote me to say “call the third circuit, they’ll give you an extension.”  Then a client called me to say “I know things are crazy there, and you might not be able to get to work today, but what about meeeeeeeeeee?”  I gave him the finger while talking to him as if I gave a shit.

The Third Circuit gave me the extension without batting an eye.  Then they told me that if I’d missed the deadline without calling, the result would have been a letter, along with an extra 2 weeks to get my act together.  Huh.

I worked some for selfish-client yesterday, and again today – but it seems like Friday’s shut-down otherwise took place without the world ending.  I was a little frustrated that we were included in the lock-down zone, because we weren’t THAT close, but then I just reminded myself that they found a BOMB near a T Station that I go through twice a day.  And that’s why we were in the zone.  I thought it was possible that they were keeping us in our houses while they were sweeping the larger area for more bombs.  So I got over my frustration, and took a nap.

At 5:30, though, after a full day of constantly fluctuating news reports and stir-crazy teens, I said, “I’m going for a walk.”  David came, and we slowly strolled around the block.  We live about 2 blocks from the T tracks, and as we were walking toward it, David said, “it’s so weird not to have the train going by” – and then the train went by.  We were surprised, and I guessed they were staging to resume service.

We ran into a couple of dog-walking neighbors (one of which is married to a Cambridge Police Officer, and he was – at that moment – at the apartment where one of the bombers allegedly lived, and where they kept saying they’d be doing a “controlled explosion” – but never did), and another friend saw us out the window and came out to say hi.  While we were chatting with them, we could sense activity picking up; a bus went by, a pair of teens walked by, more people were on the sidewalks.  Then David got a text from work saying they’d be open on Saturday, and we knew the lock-down had been lifted.

It was kind of disappointing that we’d spent the day inside and the 2nd suspect still wasn’t caught.  But it was also nice to be able to leave the house.  A friend texted and invited us over for dinner, and we instantly accepted – happy to be with others, and happy to be out of the house – during this trying time.

And then – more news.  They found that boat, and there were gunshots, and I texted my friend to say “but I can’t leave the TV!”  She responded with “oh, please, it takes 5 minutes to get here!  Come watch with us!”

So we did.  We cooked together, and chatted, and nibbled first while the suspect was captured, and then while we watched Across the Universe (awesome movie) with the kids.

My hope is that this week, things start being calmer.  On all fronts.

*  Crying at work.  A working woman’s scarlet letter.  My tears are often family-related, not work-related.  I think the last time was when David was the one to take Jules to get her braces off.  I wanted to do it.

Dzhokhar & Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Boston Marathon crowd moments before bomb blasts, April 15, 2013. (http://www.mirror.co.uk)

The mainstream American media was just one big, almost unbelievable fail this past week. Between the Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent hunt for brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the ricin letters to Mississippi GOP politicians and President Obama and the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas. In the last case, the one that killed and injured more people than two dumb asses in Boston. Yet, somehow, in a world in which the best answer should be “I don’t know” or “We don’t know yet,” media folks and their experts have been tweeting and reporting at the level of gossip for the past five or six days.

Usually a fairly careful journalist/columnist, Jonathan Capehart of The Washington Post tweeting three hours after the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, “April 19: Anniversary of storming of Branch Davidian compound & the Okla. City bombing.” At that point, we didn’t even know the number of people killed, maimed or injured. Nor did we know the number of bombs that had exploded in Copley Square. Think, man, think!

The more famous comments of the week came out of CNN’s shop, though. John King had breaking news Wednesday afternoon that law enforcement officials had identified a “dark-skinned male” suspect. Being a White guy working in mainstream media means that you never have to say “I’m sorry,” apparently. Especially when all of his “breaking news” reporting turned out to be completely wrong.

Let’s not really analyze the so-called reporting of FOX News or the New York Post. You’d get more truth from a psychic doing a Vulcan mind-meld with Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brain right now than you could from Murdoch’s news media world in a year.

Let’s also not forget many of the so-called terrorism experts whom guessed wrong about race, immigrant status and so many other details this past week. Not to mention reports whom apparently couldn’t find Chechnya on a map if the republic were blown up to 100x normal map size and they put a floodlight on it.

But the most disturbing — yet not very surprising — thing about the past seven days has been how the US media has engaged in a near-endless campaign of racial stereotypes, immigrant stereotypes, terrorism stereotypes, religious stereotypes, patriotism stereotypes, and hyperbole that attempts to defy history. A simple list should help:

• Terrorist(s) = Arab Muslims
• Males from the Caucasus = Caucasians, but not White
• Muslims who commit a violent act = terrorists
• Violent criminals = anyone not White (especially Blacks & Latinos)
• Violent mass-murdering Whites = mentally disturbed (i.e., NOT terrorists)
• Arab Muslims = immigrants, NOT US citizens
• Indo-Europeans who are White (phenotypically) & citizens but not born in US = Immigrants
• Boston = city terrorized like no city ever before

On this last one, I must put on my academic historian hat. As in — are you kidding me? Anyone ever hear of Boston in the years before and during the American Revolution? Or, in more recent times, the Oklahoma City bombing in ’95, 9/11 and Lower Manhattan, the DC sniper rampage in ’02? Or, if the idea here is that terrorism should only be viewed through the prism of those who feel terrorized, what about poor Blacks on the South Side of Chicago, in SE Washington, DC, or poor Latinos in cities like Albuquerque and Phoenix? Or, for that matter, innocent civilians in Yemen and Pakistan attempting to avoid being among the “collateral damage” caused by our drone wars for terrorist scalps?

And then, there was the need for release, for yelps of relief and cheers of joy over the successful capture of Dzhokhar Tsarneav late Friday evening, with chants of “USA! USA! USA!” included. Of course people should feel relief for the end of a tense situation. But let’s not get carried away with the tide here.

Stereotype quote taken from Annie Murphy Paul article (May 1998) in Psychology Today, January 16, 2011. (http://nwso.net/). In public domain.

We know nothing of motive, but we do know that the police will return to its regularly scheduled racial and socioeconomic profiling in the coming days. We can’t wrap our collective heads around the idea that two assimilated White American immigrants decided to kill runners at the Boston Marathon. Yet we also somehow decided to culturally and legally un-Americanize them — something we didn’t do with Timothy McVeigh. Chants patriotic might be a way to show solidarity, but we refuse to come to grips with the racial/xenophobic and anti-Muslim psychology that comes with these impromptu outbreaks of so-called unity.

Don Henley’s “Dirty Laundry” remains just as relevant now as his tune about the American news media was three decades ago. Still, the completely centrist and biased, always-concerned-about-the-bottom-line media is a mere reflection of our narcissistic and imperialistic selves.

‘Get ‘em!’

Like many other people on Friday, April 19th (aka: yesterday) I was glued to my television (and radio when in the car) completely mesmerized by the drama unfolding. I didn’t make any popcorn, but it sure felt like a movie. All day I kept hearing in the back of my mind was the Tommy Lee Jones speech in The Fugitive:

“What I want from each and every one of you is a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farm house, hen house, outhouse and doghouse in that area!” 

I noticed that the news immediately began driving home the ethnicity/anti-America conspiracy theories. I racked my brain and tried to recall the ethnic background of the last three ‘stars’ of the last three American Tragedies: What exactly was the ethnicity of that monster who shot up the kindergarten?  Oh, yeah- I think’ white’, so it must have been a mental thing. (I got news for ya- they’re all mental things!)  What about that creepy orange- haired movie theater killer? Or the wacko who shot Gabby Giffords and killed several others? It’s only when these shooters are other races that we assume it’s bigger than just defective people. We’re home growing this evil on American soil, too. They’re not all’ imports’. Why can’t we deal with that fact? When did America become like the popular girl in high-school or Jenna Malone on 30 Rock? We are so convinced that everyone is filled with envy for us- ‘we are soooo spectacular!’ that everyone wants what we have?  We are a great country, albeit one who can take zero criticism- even if it can help make us better. (You do realize that you can’t improve if you already think you are perfect, right?)  Maybe everything isn’t a conspiracy, maybe it’s just ‘there’s nut-jobs.’ 

Murderer learning the meaning of the word MERCY. 

And we can pretend to not be aware of it because it’s distasteful, but once they started posting new photos of our Fugitive, am I the only one who thought: ‘He’s attractive?’ It was noticeable, and it bummed me out. How long before the letters start trickling in (or worse yet- flooding in) from Tweens, Teens,  mentally unbalanced Cougars and possibly more than a few Beliebers, who will claim claim to understand him, believe he’s innocent, or want to be his friend? How many marriage proposals will he get? No matter how horrific a crime, there will be someone out there justifying their actions. It’s gonna happen people (if he survives) The Menendez brothers (home-grown) who murdered their parents? Tons of fan-mail. Cringe!

Portrait of a killer

I’m hearing a lot of debates about whether this kid will get life in prison or the death penalty. I’m no lawyer, but even I know that if you commit a crime at a young age and your accomplice is dead, it would be easy to present the argument that you were under the ‘spell’ of the older, deader one. It would not even be hard to argue. Especially with no one left to refute it. I don’t think he’ll get the death penalty, but I’m hoping he’ll get life, because I don’t think that’s even a given.

If he does get life in prison- what kind of life do you think he’ll have? I’m thinking a pretty good one, actually. Between all of his future female fans and his celebrity, he’ll likely carve a comfortable niche within the prison system. Remember: Dude shut down an entire city! That’s REAL gangsta…..even the Mob Bosses and the Drug Cartels  can’t make that claim. (It’s kinda like in ‘Malibu’s Most Wanted’ with B-Rad on top of those cars not knowing he had real guns! Instant ‘respect’) And before you go saying that it’s sad that anyone admires the gangster culture, ask yourself: How much do you like the Sopranos? And Scarface? And your guns? Exactly.

Lots of the ‘facts’ in this case were surprising, and more than a few were questionable. It was hard to swallow the sheer joy that seemed to emanate from the people who knew this pair before the bombing and were approached by the media. Any kind of brush with the bombers, however slight, was cause for instant attention. The ex-classmates and auto-body shop owners were giddy to spill! You could hear the excitement in their voice, how happy they were that they were getting their fifteen minutes finally! I wondered how many calls they made to friends and relatives (“I was on the news!”) and how many copies of the newspaper they bought if their quotes were printed. (Do you put that in your scrapbook? Probably) How many Facebook shout-outs would that garner? How many Twitter followers? It would be an interesting thing for your future relatives to discover on Ancestry.com. Kind of like if your great-great-great grandfather re-soled Jesse James boots in what’s now a ghost town. (and by the way- why are all of the ancestors on ‘Ancestry.com always like quirky characters from ‘This American Life?’ Are there no losers in our family trees? It’s suspect. I’m just sayin’)

I couldn’t help but wonder how upset Matt Lauer was on Friday morning. When I turned on the tv at 7:30 am, and saw that he was in Waco, Texas at the site of the horrific Fertilizer Plant explosion, unbeknownst to him, a better newer story developed close to home! One with higher ratings! Of coarse, we all feel awful about the Waco tragedy, but much like Farrah Fawcett dying on the same day as Michael Jackson, everything’s a competition. Even death and tragedy.

Of all of the facets of this story, the most compelling to me (after seeing hours of coverage) were: the fact that our fugitive escaped at all. The fact that he ran over his own brother while escaping- which was in a way, a touch of instant karma, dont ya think? The fact that the Dead One was married with a young  daughter. The fact that on the day our Fugitive visited a local Auto Body Shop  he was wearing $900 sneakers. What the f***?! You can afford $900 SNEAKERS and you’re mad, bro? And who makes $900 sneakers? (Technically I know the answer is, among others,  Versace, but I what I’m really saying is: WTF?) That our fugitive tweeted about girls, money and weed being the Holy Trinity, yet said nothing about Allah or the Russian Mafia. Kind of made him seem teen-aged. And finally- it struck me as kind of curious that after a full day of being locked down, that once the the lock-down was lifted, a man walked outside and instantly found our fugitive. Just like that.

Even during the darkest times-somebody’s got jokes…

April 19, 2013. A crazy Friday. Am I right?

Lockdown? As though Boston were some kind of lockup?

I used to live in Boston (or actually in Medford and then Somerville, but part of the same melted-together urbanity), and I can tell you it’s not a prison, even if it does have many institutions (among which a striking number of good universities and colleges). So it’s interesting to see a term applied there that came into being to refer to prisoners being confined to cells, as though citizens were at liberty only at discretion of their warders, the police.

But, then, what other term works? Curfew communicates an overnight confinement (and comes from French couvre-feu, ‘cover fire’). Stay-inside orders or similar terms – or the official shelter in place – may be descriptive, but lockdown simply has an impact the others lack. Lock: a word that conveys a constrained freezing of movement, and in sound moves from a flowing liquid to the hardest stop we have, /k/. It’s like a river locked up with ice. Down: in place, fixed. You can easily see a bolt sliding down to fix a door firmly in place, and the occupant of a cell (or house) being held confined like a butterfly with a cup clapped down over it.

And there lies the difference between lockdown and lockup (and their associated verbs lock down and lock up). What’s up? A hand help up to stop you. A wall thrown up in front of your face. The stoppage of motion: we run up to an obstacle and end up at a place when our time is up. We fill up a tank, of course, and we look up a word in the dictionary. Up in these senses conveys motion that culminates or is blocked (like a sink stopped up or your nose stuffed up) or simply unable to continue (because full, like a container – your nose stuffed up again). It can be a containment, as with something walled up. It can even be a constrainment that might yet be broken free of, as if you’re tied up today but your schedule is free tomorrow. So when you are locked up, you are in a containment or cessation of motion, a point of at least temporary culmination. Like how the sound in your mouth is abruptly contained with the /p/ in up. (Which is not to say that the sound is responsible for the meaning.)

And what’s down? Not something stopped in motion, but something fixed at a point, anchored. Held down, nailed down, tied down. Down actually has a few different isotopes: it can communicate a motion in direction without specific endpoint (settle down), or a motion that moves downward and comes to a fixed point (set down, tie down), or – in adjectives made with past participles – fixity in a place without specific reference to prior motion. If you are cooped up you may still be able to move within confines, but if you are pinned down you can’t move at all. Interestingly, the word down starts with a stop /d/ and then fades off with a nasal /n/ – not quite so iconic – but it does have that closing-in diphtong in the middle.

In short, the difference between up and down in these words is that up is like putting your hands forward and up, palms outward, as against a wall, and down is like driving your index finger downward to a stopping point. Locked up: nope, stop, not getting out, kept in. Locked down: staying put, going nowhere. Up is to stop as down is to done, perhaps.

Well, anyway, Bostonians were kept in but they have now been let out; they were confined but now they are free again. The suspect was hiding in a boat, but no one knew that; because he could have been anywhere, everyone in Boston was in the same boat. Once the police got a lock on his location, everyone else could unlock: his number was up, and they could let their guards down.

Today, I am posting again for a number of reasons:

1.    I have time. I ran 10 miles this afternoon and realized that I pretty much used up all my energy for the day. I was planning on going food shopping, but there is no way I am going down those stairs again. Even after yesterday’s lock-down, I will be pretty content to stay in tonight.

2.    I actually have a lot I want to write about. My city just experienced a week of terror and I have all sorts of conflicting emotions about it (which is rare for me).

3.    I told Sarah I would share my recipe for sweet potato risotto.

So, here goes. I really cannot express the enormous sense of gratitude I feel right now. Not just because I escaped “the terror,” but also because it reminded me of how fortunate I am, and how great my life is. Sometimes I realize how incredibly privileged I am, and it often overwhelms me. My privilege is not necessarily unique but it is shared with many other members of the white middle class community that grew up in the suburbs. I am privileged because I grew up with a stable, normal family and got a great education. I attended an expensive private college with an academic scholarship, and I also earned a useless Master’s degree (just for fun!). I have a job that I love – it pays me a stable salary that allows me save money, all the while I am working to secure a clean energy future.

No one will ever look at me and assume that I am a criminal. In fact, most people look at me and think I am quite charming – it makes me good at my job, and gives me so many advantages in life that many people of color do not have. I am 30 but most people think I look like I am 25. I am in pretty good shape, I eat healthy (most of the time) because I am fortunate enough to afford local organic vegetables, and I am educated about nutrition. I work hard at my job, but I also have spare time to go to the gym, cook awesome food, and go on spring break with my amazing lady friends.

I have never been hungry, and I have always had a warm place to sleep. Yes, I have slept on floors, I have not always had a bed, but never before in my life have I ever had to sleep on the street.

My city went through a lot this week, but we are all fortunate enough that this bombing is an aberration, not the norm. I can’t begin to imagine what life is like for people who experience violence and bombings on a daily basis.

Never before in my life have I experienced the direct impact of terror, and honestly, I still didn’t this time. Yes, I remember 9/11, the shooting in Newtown, CT was about 10 minutes from the house I grew up in, and a bomb went off in the city I live in, which killed 3 people and injured close to 200. I was not there but some of my friends were, and they literally had to run for their lives. Perhaps if I had been there yesterday’s manhunt would have seemed more real for me, but it honestly did not seem real, it was happening on TV and social media. Sure, I was tense and nervous but I never felt like I was in any real danger, because I wasn’t.

This bombing happened in my city, but it barely impacted my life. My flight was a little delayed coming home from my amazing spring break in Nashville, big fucking deal. The MBTA was shut down yesterday and the entire city was on lock-down – so I didn’t have to go to work. Instead I tried (and failed) to work from home, and was pretty much glued to the TV and social media. I have a TV, a computer, an iPad, and a smart phone (so many appliances and privilege, I can hardly stand it), so it is actually difficult to get away from social media.

As I watched the manhunt, my emotions were really difficult to describe. I was nervous, but I wasn’t scared. In my life, I have never really feared for my life. The whole experience really was like watching a movie. I know it was happening in my city and could potentially impact me, or people I care about. The two suspects lived in Central Sq. Cambridge, and most of the drama was happening in Watertown. Most of my friends live in Somerville or Cambridge, so this was all happening in an area that could impact people I care about.

I guess what I mean to say is that I feel enormously grateful with a touch of guilt; guilty because I didn’t get very upset about it. Guilty, because I live in a bubble that privileged white girls like me live in, where I don’t really believe that anything that bad can happen to me. Bad things (like violence or poverty) happen to people far away, who don’t look like me, and whom I rarely interact with on a daily basis.

I also want to take this opportunity to discuss how much I fucking love this city. I was not born and raised in Boston, but my parents both grew up in the greater Boston area, and most of my extended family lives in Massachusetts. I grew up in a quiet Connecticut suburb but always felt like I belonged in Boston (I know, a native Bostonian will not accept this). I grew up an ardent Red Sox fan among a community of mostly Yankee fans – a team I still hate with such an absurd passion. I cried in 2003 when the Sox lost the ALCS to the Yankees, and I cried even more when they beat the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS, and then went on to win the World Series by sweeping the Cardinals (I cried when the Sox won, but not when I heard a bomb went off at the Marathon – isn’t that kind of fucked up?)

I know my city is not perfect – it is far from it. My city is incredibly segregated. We do not have the restaurants of NY, SF, or Chicago, and our public transit is flawed. I love my city because I have lived here through the most formative time in my life (college, my twenties). When I travel I say I am from Boston (not CT), and I currently try to claim that I am from East Boston (but native East Boston-ers see right through me).

My city’s first responders kept me, and everyone else, safe while a dangerous armed terrorist was on the loose (I say terror, meaning he committed an act of terror, I am not trying to connect him with Al-Qaeda). They endured 22 hours of hell, after an incredibly stressful and emotional week to keep our city safe while I sat at home sipping wine.

I love my city because of our incredible sense of community, and pride. I may not stay here forever (so many other great places to live and explore) but I will always call Boston my home.

I took a break during my run to take a picture of Boston from the Winthrop shore.

So, this is a lot of what was going on in my head yesterday as I made sweet potato risotto, and today as I ran 10 miles. I have a really great life and I am so happy and grateful for my amazing friends and family that I share it with. Sometimes I complain about the small things (like when a pedicure does not meet my standards) but all things considered, I am extremely grateful.

And now for the recipe I promised you …

Ingredients:

3 sweet potatoes

1 ½ cups Arborio rice

5 cups water (I thought I had veggie broth, but I didn’t – you should use broth)

Cumin

Cinnamon

1 garlic clove, diced

Salt/Pepper

1 cup white wine

EVOO

Goat cheese

First, I peeled and cut the sweet potatoes into cubes. I usually cut myself when I cook, but I did not yesterday. Success! I put the sweet potatoes in a baking dish lined with aluminum foil (easier clean up), and covered them with olive oil, a pinch of salt, cinnamon, and cumin. I baked it for about 45 minutes (I really wasn’t paying attention) at 350 degrees.

Next step in making a delicious risotto, is the broth. Sadly, I had to use water, but I scooped out some of the cooking, seasoned sweet potatoes and boiled them in my broth to give it some more flavor.

Next, I cut some garlic and tossed it into a frying pan with olive oil. I added a cup of white wine, then the Arborio rice. I waited until most of the liquid dissolved, then starting adding the broth ½ cup at a time until the broth was fully absorbed. Then I took the sweet potato

Almost done!

out of the oven and mixed it into the rice. I probably should have seasoned it some more here, it did come out a little bland.

To serve it, I mixed in a little goat cheese and served on a bed of lettuce. I was hoping it would be good with lettuce, but it wasn’t (we have an excess of lettuce and sweet potatoes in my house). I would have preferred a chard, or arugula.

Overall though, it was pretty damn delicious. My roommate who does not like sweet potatoes agreed that it was good (although she added salt).

Nothing like keeping your mind off an armed terrorist on the lam than making a sweet potato risotto!

copyright 2002 Lisa Rainwater

The majority of my posts are, admittedly, on my struggles with addiction to nicotine and why I should really give up the habit once and for all. I’m not out to judge anyone else who still smokes. That’s for you and your lungs to work out. If you find what I write to be of help — or of interest — all the better. Rarely, do I sing the praises of smoking (although I could) for that would defeat the purpose of my own personal project.

Yet, today, I find I must. Sing the praises of smoking, that is.

Yes. I must laud the man whose nicotine addiction freed the residents of Boston and her surrounding suburbs from an unprecedented lockdown and allowed our nation’s tenacious police forces to bring Suspect #2 in the Boston Marathon bombings into custody.

Our hero’s name is David Henneberry of Watertown, Massachusetts.

But I’m getting ahead of my story …

I awoke yesterday morning well before the Gulf Coast’s tangerine sunrise and stumbled into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. As the water boiled, I did what I do every morning: scroll through Facebook and Twitter to catch up on all the “exciting” events that occurred while I was trying to steal a bit of insomniac sleep. Most mornings I am greeted by the doldrums of the netosphere: a sleepless in Toledo announcing his sleeplessness at 3 a.m.; a special offer to buy an exercise band at 50% reduction — if I buy NOW, posted at 4 a.m.; a prescheduled announcement by a not-for-profit telling me of yet another horror happening to our waterways, released at 5 a.m.; or a YouTube video of a crazy dog doing crazy things that crazily I choose to watch, launched at 6 a.m..

Boring and tedious, yes. But it is my secret sanctuary to start my uneventful day.

But like many who sought pre-dawn news yesterday morning, I discovered that not all of the Northern hemisphere had been asleep, or trying to sleep, like me. Standing barefoot on my terrazzo floor, wrapped in a kimono, I read with incredulity the shootouts and manhunt that would make Steve McQueen roll over in his grave. (RIP, badass man). And I read, sadly, that M.I.T. officer Sean A. Collier, 26, was dead.

I’m not a morning television news junkie. Nor a dinner television news junkie. Nor an after hours television news junkie.

Bring me Walter Cronkite, or, yes, Dan Rather, and maybe, just maybe I could watch a 30-minute broadcast. But today’s cable news wonks, regardless of political persuasion, catapult me to my Catholic parochial school days where nuns purposefully screeched chalk on the board just to make sure we were listening. And the pundits’ hair is just as gray as the nuns who forced me to listen.

I took my coffee and swiftly went to the den, where I typically read in the mornings, and turned on the television. I, like so many others, was drawn into the crazed events of the last eight hours and felt a shroud of paralyzation cover me like mold on a week-old tomato.

But nothing happened. There were reporters screaming into cameras, wind blowing their unkempt hair, telling us that something was about to happen … but it took another twelve hours and a man with a yen for a smoke to blow things out of the water.

Enter Mr. Henneberry, who stepped outside after untold aggravating hours of being housebound to feed his addiction.

An addiction that changed the story and made our freedoms just a little bit safer.

At 6 p.m. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick released folks back into the streets, and Mr. Henneberry stepped outside to light a smoke. (As a smoker, I wonder how he held out all day, with the nail biting, potentially life-threatening events unfolding all around him.) And in so doing, Mr. Henneberry saw his boat, docked for winter on a trailer, seemingly askance. The tarp was pulled back, the ties cut. The “See something, Say Something” that we as Americans have tattooed on our tongues since 9/11 compelled him to investigate. What he found was a body lying in a pool of blood at the belly of his 22-foot pleasure cruiser. He ran into the house, called 911, and within an hour Suspect #2 was apprehended.

If it hadn’t been for Mr. Henneberry’s yen for a cigarette, who knows how long it would have taken to discover the injured suspect — dead or alive.

I’m not saying we all need to return to our smoking habits — or, god forbid, pick it up now as an homage to the man who saved the day — but it got me thinking that sometimes, this nicotine addiction thing isn’t half-ass bad.

Related articles

• Meet David Henneberry, the Tipster Who Caught Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (theatlanticwire.com)
• Watertown, Mass. Homeowner on Cigarette Break Finds Smoking Gun in Boston Bombing Case Hiding in His Boat” (politics.kfyi.com)
• In the end, bombing suspect is done in by a flapping boat tarp (fox6now.com)

I live in Boston and yesterday the city shutdown as government officials conducted a manhunt for the suspect of the Boston Marathon bombing. My roommates, their significant others, and I found ourselves in lockdown. There are days when being one of seven people in a small house will drive you mad, but surprisingly yesterday wasn’t one of those days. Instead, it was nice to hear the sounds of familiar people drowning out the sounds of helicopters and sirens wailing in from the windows. But there is no denying that the stress level was high as each person went about dealing with the incident in their own way.

Some people needed to sit in front of the televison while some people needed to drink. One roommate sought refuge in an art project, the sound of her spraypaint hissing through the rooms of our home. Some of us were chattier than normal, others crankier. For me and Ben, we craved normality so we did what we always do: we cooked.

Luckily, our pantry is stocked and we have a freezer full of meat so we were able to make fresh pasta, cut thick into gold ribbons, and a rich red meat sauce with veal, pork, and beef. Preparations took hours; we kneaded homemade pasta dough, cranked it through a manual pasta machine, hand cut noodles, and then hung them over a makeshift pasta rack. Sauce for seven, cooked slowly on the stove, a cocktail of olive oil, tomatoes, onions, shallots, meat, wine, garlic, thyme, oregano, basil and, of course, butter. It bubbled and the aromas wafted into the living room drawing gluttonous glances from our hungry friends. We grated four different kinds of Pecorino cheese into a blend to put atop our pasta and threw the rinds into the brewing sauce for good measure.

I’d hoped that cooking would prove to be the ultimate distraction but my thoughts were never far from the victims of this weeks events. In a flash, at the whim of two villainous men, these people have had their worlds changed dramatically. The ugliness that engulfed Boston this week, and incidents like it that occur all over the world, makes my heart hurt. In the wake of these events, it is near impossible not to be cynical. It is so hard to believe in peace in this world.

But, as I chopped, stirred, and grated, I felt so lucky to traverse the kitchen on two feet, to wash the dishes with both my arms. I was so grateful to be locked in my own house instead of constrained to a hospital bed. I couldn’t help but be happy that momentarily I’d be sharing another meal with people I loved. Is it too simple to say that I found peace in making and sharing pasta? Too corny? Does it make me ignorant to the never ending suffering of other people? I hope not. I like to think that the ability to find happiness in life’s most rotten moments is optimistic. We all deserve peace and if we can find it, we should embrace it. Or in my case, I should eat it.

If you think fresh pasta may bring you peace too, here is our recipe.

Homemade Golden Ribbon Pasta Recipe
Makes 2 Pounds, Feeds 7-8 Hungry Friends

INGREDIENTS:

5 large eggs
2 1/4 c. flour
2 tbs. salt
3 tbs. warm water

DIRECTIONS:

Note: you will need a large amount of counter space, patience, and upper body strength to knead and roll out your pasta dough.

In a large bowl, add flour. Create a deep well in the center of the flour. In a measuring cup or small bowl beat eggs and salt with a fork. Pour liquid into flour well and mix with your hands. Do this until your mixure resembles corn meal. Add warm water to the mixture and continue to mix with your hands. After a few minutes, your mixture will become fully incorporated. Remove from bowl and knead on table. We divided into two portions to make it easier. Knead for ten to fifteen minutes and then pat dough into circles and wrap completely in saran wrap. Let sit at room temperature for at least a half hour and not longer than two hours before rolling out your pasta dough using either a rolling pin or pasta machine. Using a very sharp knife, cut pasta into desired thickness. We suggest one-inch ribbons. Hang pasta on a pasta rack (We used plastic close hangers).

In a large pot, boil water with a bit of olive oil to prevent sticking (if you do not have a large pot, cook in batches). When boiling, add noodles. Cook for three minutes or until desired consistency. Serve with your favorite pasta sauce.

Editor of End the Lie

Dzhokar Tsarnaev via FBI

As police search Boston for <a href=