1hundredsixty8

From a media perspective, last week was a news orgy. The Boston Marathon bombing on Monday was followed by the stunning resolution on Friday. In 5 days, Boston went from a scene of chaos and heartbreak, to ghost town to the spectacle of people poring into the streets when the manhunt ended. There was a ferocious firefight in a suburban neighborhood.  We had round the clock news coverage, off-the wall media speculation, amazing work by law enforcement, and a the involvement of the public in finding the perpertrators.

In the town of West, TX, more people died and more were injured than in the Boston bombing when a fertilizer plan caught on fire and then exploded. Fifty homes were destroyed as well an apartment omplex and a nursing home.

In Washington, the US Senate failed to overcome a filibuster of gun-control legistation.

I did see a chart on a TV news show (probably Chris Hayes on MSNBC) that showed- and I do not recall this precisely but it is apporximately correct- that since 1980,  3200 people have died in this country as the result of terrorism, over 30,000 in industrial accidents, and over 900,000 from gunshots. The priorities of both our law-makers and the media seem to be somewhat out-of-order.

As Confucious said, "To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice."