Violence for the sake of violence

My sister ran in the Boston Marathon yesterday. I was extremely proud, and I wanted to go to support her but a couple of extra expenses the past few months prevented that from happening. Still, both my parents went and I followed her progress online as her 5k splits were recorded. Her goal was to set a personal record of 3:26:00 or better. She was on pace to do so until her legs started cramping up with about 8 miles to go. She slowed significantly and even had to walk a couple of times down the stretch, but she managed to finish with a really good time.

I'd been texting with my mom, who was stationed about 2 blocks from the finish, trying to get more on-the-spot news. At 2:50-something, Mom and Dad were still looking for my sister. At 3:02, Mom texted me this:

Pray. A bomb or something big. People panicked.

It took about 14 more minutes before I got word that everyone in my family was ok and back together. It was a pretty freaky 14 minutes. I was praying for the safety of my family, for the other runners and spectators, and (naturally) wondering why the hell anyone would do something like this.  I think my mom and dad were stationed at the corner of Fairfield and Boylston near the finish, not too far from where the second bomb went off, but weren't there when it did. Apparently the bombs were made with the intent to do damage to the greatest number of people, to maim and kill, and speculation is that the source is a domestic terrorist of some kind.

I went through a gamut of emotions - fear, anger, sadness... I came to the realization that the Why Question is meaningless. Whether the person had a reason or not, whether he or she felt justified or not, the reality is that 3 innocent people are dead, many more will have to live the rest of their lives in a diminished capacity, and their families are all dealing with the aftermath. Unless done to directly protect someone, violence is just violence and there is no justification.

With that all running through my head, my wife and I went to the last Pistons home game this year. It was hard to get into a festive mood, but we managed. It was fan appreciation night, which meant that the event staff peppered the crowd with t-shirts, food and jersey giveaways, and a guy had a chance to make a 3/4 court shot for $1 million (he missed BADLY).

The game was decent. Monroe was good, so were Bynum and Singler. Stuckey and Knight spent a lot of time bouncing passes off the defense's arms (or directly into their hands), and both team's defense looked pretty lackadaisical. Drummond was ok but committed several dumb fouls (one of which he didn't actually commit) and fouled out with 5 points, 8 boards, a block and 2 steals.

I fell into a state of cognitive dissonance in that I'm glad I saw a win, but upset that the Pistons won and hurt their draft lottery chances (falling out of the #5 spot into a tie at #7 in the last couple games). Their best case scenario is now losing their last game and Washington and Sacramento winning theirs, putting Detroit at a tie for #6. Gores isn't happy about the season, and reading into his quotes, people suspect a head or two may roll.

There's some NFL Draft and Lions news, but I'll get to that tomorrow. Take care of yourselves.