By Edwin Cooney
The outrageous bombing near the finish line of the Boston
marathon last Monday can mean many things. It can signify:
just another factor in 21st Century urban
American life; or,
a new and more dangerous phase in “the war on terror”, or
the beginning of Armageddon which we Christians have read
about in the Book of Revelation, and the jihad Muslim fundamentalists often
eagerly anticipate,
or, if one’s head is really in the sand, it can mean
absolutely nothing at all.
The fact that last Monday’s bombings occurred as
Massachusetts celebrated Patriot’s Day (the day citizens of New England
traditionally celebrate their April 1775 victory over the British) naturally
causes students of history to wonder about the significance of last Monday’s
tragic event.
Ever since November 11th, 1620 when, while still
on shipboard, William Bradford
drew up the Mayflower Compact that many believe established the first truly
representative form of government in America, Boston seems to have been at the
forefront of some of the most meaningful events in our history. Although Jamestown, the oldest colony
in English America, was more than a decade old when 102 Anglican Separatist Pilgrims
landed on Cape Cod, things after that began to happen fast in Eastern
Massachusetts:
In the Fall of 1621, Governor John Carver’s tiny colony of
Separatist Pilgrims celebrate “Thanksgiving” with Squanto, their Wampanoag
Indian benefactor, and his tribe. They thank Providence for their first
successful harvest in the new world.
On Tuesday, September 7th, 1630, the
Massachusetts legislature under the leadership of John Winthrop, the first
governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, incorporates Boston thus establishing the
first urban society in English America.
In the Fall of 1635, Boston opens Massachusetts colony’s
first public school thus emphasizing the importance that Boston Puritans and
Congregationalists alike place on education.
In 1636, Harvard College is founded. It is eventually named
after John Harvard, a Charlestown minister who left his entire library and half
of his monetary estate to its successful development.
Thus, in less than a decade and a half, greater Boston came
to represent democratic government, cross cultural cooperation, urban
development and higher education.
All of these events took place nearly 150 years before New England’s
Minutemen drove the British out of Lexington to light the pathway to America’s
national greatness.
For me, one of the most meaningful events to take place in
our history occurred in the wake of the Boston Massacre on March 5th,
1770. On that cold and blustery
Boston night, angry Bostonians set out to protest the loss of their waterfront
jobs to British soldiers. Underpaid by the British government, the soldiers
were hired to replace already angry and rebellious underemployed
Bostonians. Soon snowballs were
joined by musket balls and five “patriots” including a nine-year-old child lay
dead. Nine British soldiers were
charged with murder. That’s when
thirty-four-year-old John Adams came to the defense of the British
soldiers. Adams was a candidate
for election to the legislature that year, but the idea of equity and justice,
especially for those less favored in society, was just as important to him as
his political career.
Now, as things have turned out since last Monday, John
Adams’ sense of justice or equity could become a factor in the ultimate fate of
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his family. Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s resentment and
hatred for those he perceived as hostile to someone he loved sealed his
fate. As a son of the Balkans, his
cultural heritage may well have dictated that he take on the responsibility for
settling any injustice he perceived might have been done to anyone he loved. As
for Bostonians or anyone else, no wrong done to the Tsarnaevs
justified the taking of innocent lives and the resulting stress to both the
community and the nation. Although
our justice system can be both frustrating and disillusioning, most Americans
will insist that the Tsarnaev’s grievances
should have been settled in the courts rather than in the streets of Boston or
any other city. For those of us
accustomed to the idea that liberty and justice are all part of the same
package and the responsibility of us all, reliance for protection and justice
on our civic and political leadership is almost second nature.
However, what many Americans have feared all week --
specifically that last Monday’s bombing constituted a new phase in the “war on
terror”-- appears to be unjustified. Yet, terror, which one might define as an
intensified form of fear, is an enemy much older than that noble community in
eastern Massachusetts we call Boston.
Thus, after all this week’s trauma, it seems that death,
war, taxes and, above all, fear, still remain front and center as the biggest
challenge for Boston and all humanity.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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