Light in dark

Heroes in Boston a reminder that terror, foreign or domestic, can never win

Before Oklahoma City or Sept. 11, many Americans somehow believed terrorism was what other people did over there to other people.

Like the attack last Sunday in Mogadishu, Somalia, that killed up to 35. Or the Feb. 21 bomb attacks in Hyderabad, India, that killed 17 and injured 117.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, as Monday's horrific attack at the Boston Marathon demonstrates.

In the last two decades of the 20th century the FBI claims to have confirmed that of 335 incidents of terrorism in the United States, 250 were carried out by U.S. citizens (in the past six months, government officials told McClatchy Newspapers, there have been 172 IEDs reported in the United States).

Although authorities have identified the two bombing suspects, we should guard against taking the obvious for granted. We must not assume the two bombs that exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon were planted by a couple of freelancers or if they were working in concert with others. Although the two were from the Russian republic of Chechnya, a region plagued with political, ethnic and religious violence, we also know these two were long-time residents of the U.S.

The list of things we still don't know is much longer than the list of things we know, or at least think we know. We do know that the suspects looked like people you could pass in the mall without a second thought.

In that, we're reminded of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols who set off a truck bomb that killed 168 people in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

Or Ted Kaczynski, the brilliant Harvard-trained mathematician and one time college professor we now know as the Unabomber, who used letter bombs to terrorize the nation from 1978 to 1995.

And that's the point with terrorists. They melt into society and go about their business until they act, whether motivated by politics or religion or ideology or simply a need to get even or noticed.

Depending upon how broadly you want to define terrorism, the list of homegrown groups is lengthy and extends well back into our history.

Who doubts the Ku Klux Klan is anything but a terrorist organization? Or the Weather Underground? Or the Symbionese Liberation Army? Or the Aryan Nations? Or Army of God?

Because of numerous cameras that happened to be pointed at the blast sites Monday, eye witnesses and around-the-clock police work, authorities quickly zeroed in on the two young Chechen brothers. That work will not end with them as authorities try to answer the "why" question behind the attack and to make sure others weren't involved.

The hope we take from the horrifying photos and video from Monday's attack is how many people, both civilian and first responders, ran toward the blast site to help those they didn't know without concern for their own safety.

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