Consider that 4 days ago, a bomb went off at the 4 hour, 9 minute mark of the Boston Marathon and everything was chaos. A second bomb went off seconds later, there were reports of other bombs found; reports that other devices had been detonated in a controlled explosion; reports that another device went off in the JFK Library in another town. There were no reports about suspects or motives.
Police and investigators had nothing.
Three days after that, we got our first pictures of some suspects. Think about that- three days! They went from nothing to suspect pictures from surveillance cameras in three days. It’s like something out of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.
One day later, one of those suspects is dead and the other in custody.
It’s breathtaking to think how fast authorities were able to go from knowing nothing to closing the case. Seriously, did anyone really think it would be resolved in under a week?
I monitored Twitter most of the day- it was hard not to as the realtime reporting of events was very compelling. I stopped for awhile towards the late afternoon and early evening. It seemed like things were stuck. After being out and about, I arrived home and decided to turn the news on, and promptly saw that things had taken a dramatic turn for the better. The suspect was basically pinned down: the police knew where he was and he had no leverage for escape. In short, it was all over but the waiting and the only real question was whether the suspect would be killed or not.
So we sat down with the kids and let them watch the news as things unfolded. They both knew about the bombing from earlier in the week. We figured this was a chance to let them see something simple and poignant: the good guys catching the bad guy. They asked lots of questions (surprise!) about what was going on as we waited. They were even concerned about our safety, wondering if “that place was close to where we live” (I guess some more geography lessons are needed.) The main point I kept telling them was that it would all be over tonight, it was just a matter of when.
When the moment arrived, they noticeably relaxed. They understood the ramifications of the moment: the bad guy was caught and it was over.
When I tucked the boy into bed a little while later, he said “It’s good that the good guys won, because they [the bad guys…] hurt all those people.” Even at that age, they understand that it isn’t a total victory. I agreed with him, and almost added something. But I decided not to.
I decided I’d let him realize on his own that there is always another bad guy.