Boston, you’re my home

I hate that I’m here, far away, when tragedy strikes at home. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the news. Don’t you all worry about me? I live in the Middle East. Now I worry about you… Its not supposed to be this other way around, and I hardly even knew how to think about it. I’m so thankful I could talk to you all and al hamdulileh everyone is safe.

As we worried and refreshed online news pages, all Nadine and I kept muttering to each other was wow, the world is a terrible place. There is so much sadness and violence and war burdening this region that we are constantly reminded of. Then from home, a supposedly safe place, these random acts of destruction and terrorism occur. Again, our hearts ache.

Outside of that thought, there wasn’t much to say. Yet as almost an afterthought we reflected, god I hope it wasn’t an Arab. 

I’ve seen that sentiment tossed up on different twitter feeds and newsites, please don’t be an Arab or a Muslim, and as I hear stories like the Saudi student who was tackled fleeing the explosion or the two man escorted off the airplane after speaking in Arabic, the hope is even stronger.

The next step was to hope that the perpetrator was not a lunatic who would become the new face of a billion people. Not a murderer who would further fan the flames of Islamophobia.

 

Not an animal who would obstruct the ability of thousands of students to complete their educations in the United States. Not an extremist who would maim and hurt the very people who were still recovering from the pain of Sept. 11.

 

President Obama and Gov. Deval L. Patrick have shown great restraint in their words and have been careful not to accuse an entire people for what one madman may have done. But others might not be so kind.

– NY Times

 

Whoever did this was a monster. I don’t want to “hope” anything about them. Maybe a better way to say this, I am sad and angry. I hope whoever did this gets caught, gets punished, and gets everything that is coming to him/her for this terrible act. But I hope we don’t fall back on fear, hate, or stereotyping because of our anger and sadness.

 

To close, a more positive note. I was surprised by the outpouring of love from friends here this week. You know, when I introduce myself here, I always tell people I’m from Boston. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I got calls, messages, and texts on Tuesday from my local friends… they were checking in, seeing if kul shay tamam – making sure my family/friends are safe, expressing condolences, seeing if I needed anything or wanted to talk.

Solidarity is a beautiful thing. I guess its something that contradicts the feeling Nadine and I couldn’t shake Monday night.. the world is a terrible place.

But as Nadine later reflected, I guess all we can do is keep trying to do good by each other – and hope that we all feel for each other and can take care of each other when tragedy does strike.

“We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago. So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think,

The good outnumber you, and we always will.”