I have a daughter living in Boston. So, of course, despite the vanishingly remote statistical probability of her being among those injured yesterday, I felt a pang of dread that didn't abate until she texted me back to say: No, I wasn't there. I'm fine.
And, of course, none of us is really fine now. We know -- or at least can almost imagine -- the horrible pain of those who were there. And not the physical pain of injuries, either, as bad as that might be. But the pain of those who love those who were there. The pain of loss. The pain of never feeling safe.
So, yes -- terrorists do produce terror.
But that's all. We don't retreat. We don't surrender. We don't give them what they want, whatever that is.
Terrorists add, very temporarily, to the world's coffers of sadness and pain. Their lasting deposit is in the coffers of hate. I hate them. You hate them. Everybody hates them. If my daughter had been among those hurt or killed, that hate would, I know, have become a defining element in my life. For the rest of my life, I would want to find them, and hurt them -- whether or not I found the means.
But surrender to them? Yield to their demands, whatever they might be? Never.
In other words, to the extent terrorism is about advancing some agenda other than adding to the world's supply of misery and hatred, it is a total failure. It absolutely never works.
So of course our system of justice will extend its long arm and reel in the culprits of this episode, and exact its retribution. Of course we stand in solidarity with the people of Boston. And of course every father and mother, sister and brother, son and daughter, and decent member of the human family -- truly feels a portion of the pain of those affected directly.
But I will leave all of those proclamations to the politicians and civic leaders. I will leave the tender words of consolation and empathy to the clergy. I simply want to add this to the mix, on the off chance it will reach anyone who needs to hear it: Terrorists are morons.
What Gandhi did worked. What Martin Luther King did, worked. What Mandela did worked. What you do has never worked. It doesn't work. It never will work. We hate you, and if we can ever figure out what you want -- even if it's only our fear and cowering -- you can be damn sure you will never get it. You are morons.
And speaking of damnation: If you're a religiously motivated terrorist (a terrorist who invokes service to "god," which may or may not relate to the bombings in Boston), your views of religion are, you guessed it, moronic. Let's say there really is a god inclined to reward adherents who blow up random 8-year-olds, or the limbs off runners. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize: That god is evil. Such a god could not be anything but evil.
So either you are wrong about the almighty-something all leading religious thinkers and theologians believe, along with the overwhelming majority of the world's faithful of every denomination. Or, you are right -- and you have yourselves an evil god.
So here's the thing, you morons: What's the likelihood that an evil god, who enjoys watching limbs blown off, and innocent children blown up, will keep his promises to you? You'll get wherever it is you think you are going to receive your pass into paradise, and that god will laugh at you and say: You really are a moron! I just like torturing people, and why should you be an exception? Welcome to eternal damnation, just for my sadistic pleasure. I hope you guys have the fun you so richly deserve!
I invite the world's terrorists to try bending spoons with their minds. Or flapping their arms to fly. These work at least as well as terrorism.
So, terrorists: Yes, you add to the world's endowment of sadness and misery. You add temporarily to the accounts of fear. But all that really sticks is hatred. Well, that -- and the kind of pitying, almost amused version of disgust and contempt we can only feel for the most abject of morons.
Terrorism is one of the most consistently failed experiments in the history of human endeavor. Whatever you want, including our lasting fear, you won't get. You never get it.
You are the deluded, detestable, pitiful disciples of a deranged deity who looks forward to your torment. And so do we! Tell them what they've won, Johnny...
Terrorists, foreign or domestic -- are morons.
-fin
Dr. David L. Katz; www.davidkatzmd.com