I Hate Monday

Today, I’d like to expound on one of my most fervent hatreds, my contempt for terrorists. It’s a topic for today in particular, since the 118th running of the Boston Marathon, held annually since 1897 on the 3rd Monday in April, takes place today. Last year, of course, was marred by two bombs which killed three people, including 8-year-old Martin Richard.

What a sickening trend in human affairs when extremists view any convenient and hopefully defenseless individual, group, event or institution* as their personal publicity agents. One of the most heinous acts of terrorism ever – and unfortunately there are dozens of candidates – has to be the 2004 Beslan school massacre in Russia. Militants stormed an elementary school on the first day of school – how evil is that? – taking more than 1,000 children, parents and teachers hostage. When the smoke cleared three days later, 334 people, mostly hostages, were dead, including 156 children. Many of the dead were burned alive. More than 1,200 people were injured. The most common injuries among the children who survived: burns, gunshot injuries, shrapnel wounds, and mutilation caused by explosions.

Any individual or group who seeks publicity for their cause by capturing, kidnapping, torturing, maiming and killing individuals at random is truly and utterly detestable, despicable, contemptible, and oh so hateworthy.

* Another loathsome example: Chechen militants who stormed a theater in Moscow in 2002, taking some 850 people in the audience hostage. That siege lasted four days and resulted in 170 deaths and more than 700 injuries.