If nothing else, the terrorist attacks on the Boston Marathon have led me to conclude that while, theoretically speaking, all people are born equal, some are more equal than others. I happened to be watching a foreign news channel when the unfortunate bomb blasts hit the sporting event in one my favorite cities in America. It was covering a series of attacks in Iraq on the same day which killed as many as 75 Iraqis in 20 cities across the troubled country. The news was interrupted – permanently. I stayed up all night, hearing tragic stories about the innocent American people who lost their loves due to the terrorist attacks, but nothing was heard about the Iraqi men, women and children who, too, were taken away from us too early.
For somebody who enjoys keeping up with national and international news on a regular basis, I always thought I was completely desensitized – that nothing I could see on the news could disturb me for more than a couple of minutes. Yet, the fact that the story about violence in Iraq was completely forgotten the minute a terrorist attack occurred on American soil somehow managed to wake up the human somewhere deep inside my soul.
I understand completely, proximity of such attacks brings out a different sense of grief and panic. Sometimes I remain disgustingly apathetic about drone attacks that are being carried out as close as 300km away from where I live. However, I think if we aspire to live in a global village where humanity prevails over nationality and ethnicity, we need to value human lives equally. An American life is not more valuable than an Iraqi life, which is not more valuable than an American life. Sadly, it probably easier said than done.
Having said that, I strongly believe people in my part of the world value American lives more than Americans value Pakistani (or to generalize, Middle Eastern Muslim) lives, not that it is or should be a competition. Where I lived, I saw a show of solidarity for the people of Iraq on April 15, and for the people of Boston on April 17. We might have been a day late, but we were there.
I have heard of Americans protesting the death of innocent civilians in Pakistan at the hands of drones run by America’s Central Intelligence Agency, but it is not often enough, and it is definitely not with enough conviction. You might be killing a handful of Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs, but you’re killing even more Martin Richards. It is not worth it, and even if the media is silent, it is time we speak up. Not for America, not for Iraq, not for Christianity, not for Atheism, not for Islam – but for humanity.
At the end of the day, the American people vote in some of the most powerful people in the world. They have a responsibility – a difficult one – and one that earns them unfair criticism time and time again. As easy as it might seem to me writing from far away, I do wish the American people would exercise their constitutional right to freedom of speech more often and speak out on the atrocities their tax money is used to execute. The world might just be a happier place.
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