Last week, on the same day, bombings occurred in Boston, Ma and across Iraq– 5,808 miles apart, but for one day they were tragically right next door to each other. The lives of three people were claimed in Boston and hundreds of others were injured; in Iraq over 50 people were killed with more than 100 wounded.

In response to the Marathon Bombing, the President interrupted his schedule to travel to Boston, attend a nationally broadcast inter/multifaith service and to speak about the event and subsequent investigation.  Iraqi president Jalal Talabani would have to have had the sum of all the powers of the Avengers to attend a service at the site of every attack in his country last week – bombs went off in 8 to 10 cities (reports varied). In the US, there was a national moment of silence; the last moment of silence I could find in Iraq happened in 2005, for victims of car bombings. Continue reading “Media and Grief” →