Don't rush to judgment in Boston's wake

It was impossible to look away Friday, as police scoured Boston for the second suspect in Monday's marathon bombing.

The city was locked down; time stood still as we tethered ourselves to televisions, refreshed and re-refreshed Web pages, wanting to know the moment there was something - anything - to know. A gripping end to an emotionally exhausting week.

Regardless of whether we'd ever stepped foot in the city, our hearts and souls have been in Beantown from the moment Monday's bomb blasts filled our computer and TV screens.

It's only human to feel that way when watching images of such an awful event, as Cynthia Vaske said on this week's “Insights on Iowa” podcast. To personalize the experience as though we were there.

“We relate,” said Vaske, a social worker and EAP Manager at St. Luke's hospital. “We feel the grief that they're going through.” We crave answers.

One Marion man described to me how his wife reacted early Friday when she learned about the alleged bombers: “It really bothered her that people so young could be so filled with hate or rage or whatever that they could kill indiscriminately,” he wrote.

“She asked what had we as a society done to fill others with such anger, and I don't have good answers for her.” There may well be none.

Still, thanks to cable and Internet news, there's no limit to how deeply we can immerse ourselves in the search. Here at The Gazette, the network guys even had to ask that we not stream video of the Boston manhunt unless it was necessary for our work. So many of us were watching, we were clogging up the works. I'm sure we weren't alone.

There's a danger of taking human empathy too far when we hang on every word, every development, as if our own lives were in the balance.

We run the risk of identifying too much - of letting fear of isolated, extreme and faraway events rule the way we live our lives. Of applying caution too broadly. Of rushing to judgment.

Already on Friday, Sen. Chuck Grassley suggested that Senate immigration reform discussions should shift in the wake of the Boston bombing. Rep. Steve King, characteristically, put the sentiment more strongly. Others will follow, trying to fill our need for answers by dragging out old agendas. They always do.

We'll be tempted: drawn to the idea of accepting old answers, wrong answers - any answers - in order to resolve these awful events.

We must resist.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@sourcemedia.net