As We Rally Around Boston.

By now, most of us have seen the coverage of the Boston Marathon attack last week. I think we are all thankful that the suspected bombers are no longer at large and that the injuries and deaths, while significant, were far lower than other national tragedies like 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing. And still, like so many of the news events that have rocked our sense of safety and the safety of our families, these frightening acts can make us feel like there is danger everywhere. We can feel like there are too many bad people in the world, lurking everywhere waiting to change our lives in an instant. Certainly, being alert and aware to the real dangers that exist is necessary. Still, viewing the world as a dangerous place and viewing our fellow humans as distrustful and violent, can often lead us to act and relate to one another in ways that don’t benefit any of us.

Here is what I know about people, most of them are good. The overwhelming majority of people are friendly, helpful and when called upon, do amazing, brave, selfless things. If you watched any of the Boston coverage, you had to notice the scores of people running to help. These are people that ran to the blasts, not away from them. These are people, people just like you an me who somehow put aside their own interests, their own safety to cradle an injured stranger on the street or to comfort a scared and confused person in front of them. This is the absolute heart of Ubuntu. There are people who do bad things. There are people that are mentally ripe for ideologies that are extremist and violent, and they come from every color, every religion and every nation. There are religious and world views that promote hatred and intolerance. And even though when these affect us, it is real and it is frightening, most people are inherently good.

Ubuntu tells us that we are all one, dependent upon our fellow humans for support and comfort. I
can think of no time we need to come together more than these times when our belief in our fellow man is challenged. When our tolerance and fairness is tested is exactly the time we need to remind ourselves that we are in this together, that we are more the same than different. In the Boston bombing, what can we take from the simple courage of everyday people? We saw people running to help, people anxious to donate blood, time and money. Many of us said prayers for the familiesaffected, the people hurt, the law enforcement trying to make us safe. We saw that most people are good. Most people offer care and concern for other people, even people they don’t know. When we feel an impulse to pull away, we must hang on to the solidness of our shared connection and the knowledge that while bad exists, good always prevails.