Went to a little ceremony today. The local authority that I work for held a morning tea for those of us who have worked for 10 or more years at the council. We all got a certificate and a wooden award thingy, which will make an ideal bookend. I've worked there now for 17 and a half years, so in a few years they will (might) give me a 20 year plaque, so I can have two bookends. I have to say it's nice to be recognised, to have a body of work acknowledged; so often all the kudos goes to the young hotshots who streak across the firmament, changing everything, then leaving for overseas or a higher-paying job. Employing staff who have a historical perspective of change (who know where the bodies are buried) is sometimes useful. Just because we're older doesn't mean we're stupider.
Am I being stupid if I say I feel sorry for the Boston Bomber, as he is now called in the media? There is no way he will get a fair trial, his brother is dead and he is severely injured and separated from his family. His constitutional rights are to be waived, (so much for the home of the free) and who knows what sort of physical tortures he will be subjected to. He will be Made An Example Of, as one of my teachers used to say. No doubt the gun lobby will use this to confirm just why all Americans should be armed to the teeth, and further limits on citizens' freedoms and rights will be imposed by the Senate "to protect American lives" (because they're so much more important than anyone else's). He is a terrorist because he is a Muslim Chechen; if he was an American he'd just be called a killer aka Dylan Klebold, the Unabomber etc., but didn't they terrorise their victims too? And did they have to call out every policeman on the Eastern Seaboard to hunt him down? One guy? It just seems... that there's something off here. As if the whole thing was stagemanaged by ??? I'm not a conspiracy theory sort of person, but....
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