After any tragedy – whether it’s a plane crash, a school shooting, even a natural disaster – divisiveness often follows. People are quick to politicize the event with a liberal call for stricter gun control after a shooting or a conservative call for stronger national defense after a terrorist attack. No party or ideology is blameless here.
There will be plenty of time for partisan finger-pointing. The best reaction to Monday’s bombing at the Boston Marathon? The exact opposite.
So instead of focusing on a preoccupation with an unnamed Saudi person of interest, our time is better spent focusing on the very best in humanity. They are the runners who completed the marathon and continued running to the hospital to donate blood to victims. They are the first-responders and emergency personnel who ran toward the blast to help the victims. They are Carlos Arredondo, a man once suicidal after the death of his Marine son in Iraq, who made makeshift tourniquets for victims and waved down ambulances. For every terrorist, every mentally disturbed individual, there are thousands who would endanger themselves to help their fellow citizens in need.
In the coming days, it might come to light that this was a planned terrorist attack, or merely the plan of a single disturbed individual. No matter the cause, our plan of action should be the same: one of unification. The Boston Marathon itself is an event meant to bring the world together, with participants from hundreds of countries. That same unifying sentiment is just what we need now that tragedy has struck.
We need to cultivate that same spirit to create a better world not only politically, but in general. In the words of President Obama: “We reaffirmed that on days like this, there are no Republicans or Democrats. We are Americans united in concern for our fellow citizens.”