President Obama has ordered flags at the White House and all federal buildings be flown at half-staff in honor of the victims of the Boston bombing.On the other hand, if the blast that took your loved ones' lives was an industrial accident, meh.
The president issued a proclamation this morning that all flags be lowered until sunset on April 20 “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence perpetrated on April 15, 2013, in Boston, Massachusetts.”
At least 11 emergency responders are missing and presumed dead following the massive West fertilizer explosion near Waco, but the search for survivors continues.If you do the arithmetic, that's at least 23 dead and a good part of a town leveled. Over 200 injured, 150 buildings destroyed and the heart of the town gutted. An apartment complex was pretty much blown flat.
State officials said Friday that 12 bodies have been recovered so far, and search and rescue efforts will continue for a second day after the West Fertilizer Co. blast Wednesday night.
But it wasn't terrorism, so two days later, you have to dig through some of the news websites in order to find any stories about the explosion in West, Texas. Because some deaths are more righteous than others.
And it has not escaped notice that Sen. Cruz, who derided aid for the victims of Superstorm Sandy as "pork", now wants aid for Texas. I hope that the entire northeastern congressional delegation tells him to go shit in his hat.
Maybe it's just commonly accepted now that deaths in support of, or as the result of, corporate penny-pinching and corporate greed are not news. It's just the cost of doing business.
ReplyDeleteThe thieves started feeling that way thousands of years ago. Now, it's trickled down to us.
Rich guy cuts corners for profit... underlings die: Gosh! Too bad! What's for lunch?
A non-rich guy kills a few and tries to get away: Every cop in America after him. Shut down a major city and its suburbs to make catching him easier.
Only the military carpet bombing Boston would be more of an overreaction than what is going on.
Thank you for writing what I've been thinking! Both are very tragic, but the Texas incident did a lot more damage. But, to the media it is just not as interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe town in Texas will need years to recover and rebuild.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime there is a wild coyote (wolves are deemed extinct here)
with bombs on the streets of eastern Ma and the sheep have been asked
to stay in their pens while the those in control take care of this.
Meanwhile the news/// Infotainment outlets has more footage of one...
Eck!
this about covers it...
ReplyDeleteJohn Galt Kills Texans in Massive Fertilizer Plant Explosion
http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/04/18/john-galt-kills-texans-in-massive-fertilizer-plant-explosion/
Despite my earlier sarcasm there is a whole other part that needs to be clear.
ReplyDeleteWas the fertilizer plant there and the housing built around it or
was the housing there and the plan built nearby?
My bet is the former. People tend to build next to things that go boom,
flood, shake till they fall, or slide into the ocean and then scream foul.
In what way was the building codes lax, or better who built what next
to whom? Was it a plant that makes dangerous stuff or were the people
there believing that will never happen to me?
It's a terrible accident, maybe even someones fault. At the end of the day
people died and that is terrible.
Were they less worthy than a few people watching the race, no.
Eck!