Every few days, I catch up on those I follow at the Twitter site, and yesterday I got a "retweet" from Dan Tynan, who writes for Infoworld and other publications. He referred to an aritcle by security heavyweight Bruce Schneier, author of "Applied Cryptography" and the man who coined the term "Security Theater" to describe the TSA.
Schneier's article in "The Atlantic"(1) struck what is, for him, a familiar chord: the ever-so-hard-to-remember truth that terrorism is a rare event, and that our visceral reaction to frightening events is amplified (and, IMNSHO, exploited) by mass media.
Somehow, my memory brought up a song by Ellis Paul, which he wrote in reaction to the TV hype that surrounded John Lennon's murder. The song's first line says it all.
As I write this, there are three names to keep in mind:
Krystle Marie Campbell Lu Lingzi Martin Richard
But, not, unless another victim succumbs, a fourth, and I think we should keep it that way. It's inevitable that the loser who put all of Boston into an emotional preasure cooker on Patriot's Day will be found, and called to account, but whatever revenge the Commonwealth of Massachusetts takes on him will be an anticlimax compared to the revenge you and I can exact: the only retribution that this pitiable non-competitor will be afraid of.
We can disregard him.
Please help those around you, and history, to remember Krystle Campbell, and Lu Lingzi, and Martin Richard. Please remember /their/ names, and shun that of whomever ended - note that I did not write "took" - their lives.
Do not mention his name.
We can refer to him, in the years to come, as "Accused person 12345" or "Inmate 54321", or whatever we choose, but please don't mention his name. He doesn't deserve to be memorialized, or imitated, or even recalled.
Forget him. He deserves no less.
Bill Horne
1.)-or-