On April 15, 29 year-old Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, 23 and Martin Richard, 8, left home to watch runners cross the finish line in the Boston Marathon. They and their families thought they would return that day as always. But they never did. As the world now knows, Krystle, Lu and Martin were killed and 170 other people were shattered by bombs that day.
Also in Massachusetts, Giuseppe Cracchiola and David Frank, Sr. went to work on January 28, as did Jose Roldan the following day. They and their families thought they would come home that night as always. But they never did. Giuseppe, David, Jose and 60 other people in Massachusetts were killed and over 80,000 people were injured on the job in 2011, the last full year for which official statistics are available. Nationally, the numbers are hard to believe: 18 deaths and over 11,000 injuries on the job every work day.
Startling, heartbreaking deaths every one. And yet, people of good will might consider these comparisons.
How many days of round-the-clock broadcast news, how many satellite TV trucks, how many column-miles of print, how many gigabytes of data chronicled the first set of tragedies and how miserably few were generated to cover the tragedies that wrecked the greater number of lives?
How quickly did government officials lower flags to half staff in each case?
How many pledges to "go to the ends of the earth" were made to apprehend those responsible?
Are families any less terrorized when a loved one in good health says goodbye one morning and hours later they are eviscerated, blinded, burned and missing limbs?
Are corporate boards that repeatedly ignore safety warnings, or lobbyists and politicians who collude to slash workplace inspections knowing full well the result, more honorable than terrorists who plant explosives?
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