Yikes- 2 bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon

[ApatheticNoMore]

Bomb threat today at work, had to evacuate the building. The new normal? I guess so. Gotta love it, eh?

I'm not easily fazed by such things but there is a moment of real gut level fear when you hear it - and then you get out of there. Get out of there very confused, should one take elevators or stairs for a bomb threat? I have no clue, all our training was for earthquakes and fires where the advice is usually to take the stairs.

[bUU]

What's going on since 1am this morning has been mind-blowing. Stay inside. Stay safe.

[Zoebird]

what is going on since 1 am?

[bUU]

It started about 10pm last night. The suspects held up a convenience store, killed a young campus police officer, and had a shoot-out with police, including use of explosives. One of the suspects is dead. The other is still at large, and many towns around here are under lock-down. Word now is that they're Russian Chechens.

[bUU]

Suspect at large has been identified by the AP as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass., a Chechen from Russia.

Latest word is that he ran over his buddy as he was making his get-away from the gunfight with police.

Shelter in place now extended to include the entire city of Boston and a number of the surrounding suburbs.

[CathyA]

Apparently they are brothers. My cousin lives in Watertown, which is totally shut down. He says its totally quiet, with only birds singing. The brothers are here legally from Turkey......although I guess they are originally from Chechnya. They've been here for a year. They don't know yet if they are part of a group, or just working by themselves. Apparently when they got to the dead brother, he had explosives on him.........so they are concerned the surviving one might too. Apparently in the gun fight, the brothers were throwing explosives.
I don't understand the mind of people who will intentionally hurt/kill innocent people. And these brothers were something like 19 and 21. So much hate at such a young age.

[bUU]

I don't understand the mind of people who will intentionally hurt/kill innocent people. And these brothers were something like 19 and 21. So much hate at such a young age.

I'm seeing a lot of hateful comments, about Islam, specifically, in other forums related today's events which help shine a light on how this could be. Before we had any idea who these people were, there were numerous posts projecting suspicion on Islam, itself, rather than Muslim extremism. The abject lack of perspective and capacity to differentiate between a religion and its extreme aspects was rampant. Once the Chechnyan connection was made, the hateful rhetoric escalated exponentially. The critical aspect here is that this offensively hateful bigotry is, effectively, the product of American socialization (at least from certain quarters thereof). I'm scared for the safety of myself and my friends, given that this terrorist is loose in the area, but after today, the more lingering concern I'll have is with regard to the danger that so many regular-everyday-Americans pose, given how quick they were to project vicious hate.

[SteveinMN]

The abject lack of perspective and capacity to differentiate between a religion and its extreme aspects was rampant. Once the Chechnyan connection was made, the hateful rhetoric escalated exponentially.

Right now, CBS (at least) is reporting that Dzhokhar himself has been in the U.S. since he was 7, so well over a decade. That leaves me with some questions as to how developed their connections are to Chechnya. Yet that seems to be a key descriptor in headlines and captions.

<remainder removed; off-topic>

[CathyA]

Now they're saying the brothers have been here for about 10 years. A woman who went to school with the younger brother, said he was a great kid........lots of friends and a nice guy. something has happened since then.
Also, this woman said that the older brother was 26.
I understand your comments bUU...........but isn't it sort of natural for people to make connections, as a self-preservation instinct kind of thing? It doesn't mean it works well or is fair, but I think its a very instinctual thing to lump people together, who are from a certain area, or a certain religion, or certain looks, etc.

[CathyA]

I know I'm repeating myself........but I really think we need to see ourselves as natural beings, who come from different areas, have different beliefs, different emotions, etc., etc.. BUT........we are a country that encourages all of these groups to live together. I think its unreasonable to think that we can overcome these very instinctual urges to side with "our own kind", and to see others, as "others". This is just another problem we will always encounter in our attempts to be "civilized." I'm unfortunately not offering any suggestions, just to maybe explain why these things happen.