Humanity Lives!

YOU KNOW!!!!....I was supposed to be sitting here tonight blogging about my sweet baby boy's first birthday party.  Instead I sit here watching CNN, hands over my mouth and sometimes my eyes.  What is wrong with people?  Why are some people so sad, depressed, angry, insert whatever negative emotion comes to mind, that they need to hurt others so badly?

I was at the park with my hubby and my kids when I heard about the Boston Marathon bombing.  I looked at my husband and said, "We need to turn on CNN when we get home."  I don't watch the news very often.  I occasionally do and I read some things online, but overall I just don't want to know.  There are just too many bad things happening in the world to want to watch the news, and I prefer to focus on the positive.

I decided on our walk back to the house not to give whatever terrible people that are responsible for this the satisfaction of ruining our precious family time, so I waited until after the kids were in bed and hubby went back to work to turn on CNN and forever burn into my memory this horribleness.

It wasn't that long ago that I sat glued to my TV sobbing after the Newtown School Shootings.  When I first found out about that, my kids were laughing and jumping on my bed, full of innocence and happiness.  It was all I could do to keep it together until they went to bed that night.  I sobbed and sobbed for days.  One of my first thoughts tonight was:  Isn't it too soon for another tragedy?  Isn't it too soon to hear that a 3 year old was one of the victims and and 8 year old is one of the dead? 

My initial reaction was fear:  fear for my kids, my family, fear for what the world is becoming, for what my kids and grand kids are inheriting.  Are we becoming a worse place to live, or are we just so connected now that it seems that way?

My second reaction was anger:  anger for the families destroyed by this, anger for the people's lives that will forever be changed both physically and emotionally, anger for taking one of America's dearest traditions and tarnishing it with death, fear, and hate.  These were people who trained for this, people who had been doing this for years and years, people looking for a special day.  These were innocent spectators, moms, children, grandparents, friends.  What could any of those people have possibly done to piss someone off enough to want to destroy their lives, tarnish their memories and traditions?  Why is there so much hate?

Then I read a person's reaction and it saved me from the dark spiraling descent I was taking.  Many people have commented on the fact that so many people ran toward  the blast and not away from it.  The horrible pictures and video of people falling to the ground, motionless bodies piled atop one another, blood everywhere, all horribly terrible.  But what did people do?  They immediately reacted!  They ran, they tore down barricades.  They squatted down and gave their help.  They were not worried about getting hurt themselves.  They were not worried about what else might happen.  All they thought about was someone else needing help.

That is when it hit me...humanity is still alive and kicking.  There was no time to think about what might happen next.  These people didn't stand there and ponder whether another bomb would go off or whether someone else's blood on them could harm them.  They simply reacted.  They ran and helped.  That is innate people!  That is who we are at our core.  That is proof that human decency still exists!

Even as the dust settles and people are beginning to come to terms with this terribleness, people's reactions are one of defiance.  Of course they will run again next year.  Of course they would react the same way if given a do over.  The human race is strong and confident and defiant and wants to live.  The human race is primarily good. 

Yes there are tons of varying viewpoints out there.  We fight about our religious views, political views, etc but when it comes time we come together and show how fierce and strong we really are.  The human race is inherently good.  Unfortunately we tend to only prove this when something inherently evil happens. 

In these situations I always find myself trying to put logic into such illogical events.  Everyone, myself included, always asks, "Why?"  More often than not we never get an answer.  If you are like me and are beginning to feel jaded about the world, try and think about it like this.  There are roughly 7 BILLION people on Earth right now.  Even if there are 100 million bad people in the world the vast majority of the population is just trying to live their lives and be good and be happy.  Think about all of the people you know.  Their reactions are likely the same as yours.  Everyone you know is horrified by this.

Sadly that gives me peace.  There is still a lot of good in this world.  I just hope that I will be able to hold on to this knowledge and teach my kids to be part of that good.  I choose to laugh and play and live.  I will not fear living my life, going places, doing things.  I may worry from time to time but it will not stop me.  We owe it to the people that these tragedies keep affecting...otherwise the bad guys win and who wants that?