Thoughts about the Boston Bomber

Almost two years after the horrifying explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, the surviving suspected perpetrator of that act is going on trial.  The trial is expected to last two or three months. There seems to be enough evidence to convict him.  Most of the attention is focused on whether he should be put to death as a punishment.

To me, the death penalty is only part of the question, what is really the question is the whole trial.  If the  death penalty was dropped then the whole trial and all of it’s horror show could be avoided.  The trail will only incite more anti-terrorist, anti-Muslim, anti-non white, non Christian feelings.  It will provoke passions of revenge, for war, for proactive strikes against whomever doesn't like us anywhere in the world.

I believe that the kid is responsible for what he did, at least as far as the law and the state are concerned.  How much of a real choice he had to really consider what he was doing; I guess he didn’t. He was boxed in, he was persuaded. He became a believer in the jihadist mission.

I don’t know this kid.  I have had some contact with one of his high school teachers who feels shocked and mortified by what he did. Tsarnaev has been described by others in interviews with the press as a decent kid, who was more of a partier than political, more passive than an activist.

I read that his family are Muslims who live in Russia.  The Russians have persecuted Muslims for years.  The Muslims have committed many terrible terrorist acts in Russia in response.  So there has been an example in his culture of how to respond to feelings of persecution and marginalization.  Why this kid, who was going to college, had friends and was going to parties, felt so persecuted and marginalized is my question.

Most people blame his older brother, who seemed to have failed at boxing, at his marriage and a few other things and seemed to have very little going for him.  This is probably part of it.

What I would like to know is what has to transpire to make someone who doesn’t seem to be genetically hot-tempered, reach a level of alienation and rejection that he needs to call attention to his pain by killing total strangers who are just living their lives.  His pain overcame any feelings of empathy, any sense of humanity, or even the consequences on what this act would do to the value of his own life.  Did he "choose" this?  Was he challenged? Was he trapped?  Did he ever have doubts?

I doubt it will ever be explained.  I’m sure Mr. Tsarnaev can’t explain it himself.  He probably doesn’t even have accurate memories of what he was thinking at the time.

Now it’s just a news story.  Nothing really, will be learned.

can't or won't? But...

I saw one of those Chantix ads on TV and it made me think of Gloria. Gloria took Chantix for over a week. She said it was working; it made her cigarettes taste like garbage. So, then she stopped taking it so she could smoke.

A few things about Gloria: she is in her late 30s, she weighs about 350, easily. She has beginning stages of everything you would expect and a bit more, as now she looses feelings in various parts of her body. She takes all kinds of pills to keep her from toppling over and dying. Sometimes she doesn't take the pills.

Once, with the help of other professions, we set up a diet and exercise program, based around carrots and short walks that would get longer. She took two walks. She stopped for a donut and coffee on the way back.

Here's the difference between Gloria and the Chantix commercial. In the commercial, if you listen closely, they always say that they couldn't have done it without Chantix AND a supporting family. Gloria doesn't have that. Her mother died when she was seventeen, her father is in Florida. He calls once a month to give her a list of his ailments. Her sister is somewhere in Chicago, she thinks.
She had a boyfriend, but he drifted away about eight years ago when she only weighed about 280.

Gloria is smart, funny, hip and knows a lot. She has friends who are also cool, but no one really special, and she is really special to no one. So who cares if she has that donut.

Yes, if she looses 180 pounds it might be easier for her to find someone special, maybe. But that would take two years of real discipline, and then what. Then, maybe.

Really, it's not about free will,it's not about psychiatric illness, it's almost always about relationships.