When Stupidity Shocks OR How Boston Made An Ass of Itself
I first heard about the suspected event of terror while driving home yesterday, listening to a local radio show, Toucher and Rich on WBCN. They explained that some devises had been picked up after complaints about their "suspicious nature." The hosts of the radio show identified them the second they saw the image as being a publicity stunt for an Adult Swim show, but by then a press conference was already in progress in which the mayor of Boston, Tom (Mumbles) Menino and our brand new governor Deval(please don't let this event stick to me) Patrick announced that our fair city was safe and those responsible would pay. But before the devices were found to be harmless, traffic on land and sea (okay-- just the Charles River) was stopped and bomb squads made themselves busy blowing the devices up.
And then the internet was off to the races. This t-shirt with the creature depicted on the devices appeared on eBay within hours.
My first reaction upon seeing the objects was not "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Call the COPS!" My reaction was, "Man, those are cool." It made me wonder why no one had used lite-brite boards in advertising for bands. But no...Apparently there were other Bostonians who went for the first reaction instead.
I want to talk to the firemen who were called all over the city and ask them if they thought -- at any time -- that this might be just plain dumb. I want to convince Deval Patrick that this was embarrassing enough without him pushing jail time on the two arrested. I want to know if anyone has ideas what might make art safe enough for us citizens. I want to apologize for my city's lameness.
Geez.
posted by Mutha @ 9:59 PM
6 Comments:
It's not Boston. The whole country is terrornuts. I swear, the more panicky and pious we get about defending the homeland the more constructive flattening buildings full of us starts to seem. I think at this point I'm more or less on the fence on terrorism. Sure, there's a downside but on the whole?
Scariest part of all this is the spread-eagle praise we're hearing, especially from the Gestap ... er, Federal authorities, for the person(s) who reported these things to the authorities. "Did what we've been telling them to do ... the system worked exactly the way it's supposed to."
Ayup. Next week: brown shirts with red, white, and black armbands.
We have met the enemy, Pogo.
Doug: I think you should trademark "terrornuts." It might sweep the airwaves like "threepeat." You are a radical my man -- better not let THEM hear ya talkin like that. Seriously though, I am still a tenderfoot. Your line "buildings full of us" gave me a shiver.
OC:The REALLY scary thing is these things were up for 2 WEEKS before they did anything about them. If this is the system we've got in place then Thank God it was a dumb hoax! So NO -- nothing worked as it should have. If these are our future Brown Shirts -- they need a better orientation.
It was a classic overreaction to be sure...and from Adult Swim's standpoint, well worth the million or so Turner will have to pay to make things "right."
This whole thing showed how people in this country just don't think anymore.
And the saga continues. There are still people spouting off about the "lack of respect" shown by the two guys arrested when they talked to the media after being released -- only to insist all questions should stick to the topic of 70's hairstyles. Jesus, THAT'S FUNNY! What was even better was when their attorney stepped in front of the mike with a stressed-out experssion trying to explain that his clients were "performance artisits."
Man life is better than fiction.
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