AN INSIDE LOOK
By Bill Gouveia
When
the body of Boston Marathon bomber suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev somehow wound up at Dyer-Lake Funeral Home in North Attleboro a week or so ago, it touched off
what becamean intense process of determining where the alleged murder (I add
alleged here forlegal purposes) would be buried.
There
were protestors at the local funeral home, led there by a media horde trying to
keep up with the public’s insatiable thirst for news related to the tragic
events. There was plenty of raw emotion
towards the deceased individual responsible for the cowardly attack, and some
of that spilled over to the owners of the funeral home.
A
few neighbors of the business were upset at the media crush and that the
alleged terrorist was – even in death – so close to their home. Some residents were outraged his body would
even be allowed within town borders. Others
were justifiably and rightly concerned the commotion was disrespectful to the
family of a person being waked that afternoon.
After
the incident at Dyer-Lake, the body was moved to Worcester where it became a
much bigger fiasco. Boston Mayor Menino
swore Tsamaev would never be buried in Boston.
Local police wanted to charge the funeral home for the cost of police details
to control angry crowds and provide security.
Finally, a Christian woman from Virginia stepped forward and arranged
for the body to be buried there in a small Islamic cemetery.
There
is no doubt most if not all the emotions generated by the handling of the body
were real and genuine. Our area has been
through a lot in the last month, and the frustration, anger and sorrow
associated with all that has happened has raised tempers and lowered tolerance
levels.
When
you have dead and crippled children, young men and women with limbs blown off
while just watching a storied sporting event in one of America’s premier cities
– well, that’s simply not supposed to happen here at home. While our brave and heroic Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans are sadly accustomed to such violence, it is not expected
to be a part of where we live.
Maybe
that explains the unusual behavior surrounding the body of a heinous
criminal. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an evil
man, and few beyond his family felt even the slightest twinge of remorse over
his death. But generally speaking, death
is considered the final punishment. In
this case, it was not enough for many.
We
have had awful serial killers in this country who – once dead – were buried and
relegated to the evil section of the history books. In death, we gave them the one thing they
could never handle. We expressed our
complete disdain by not caring what happened to their remains.
But
we seemed obsessed with this terrorist beyond his richly deserved violent
ending. We are so obsessed we unfairly
mistreat people like the owners of Dyer-Lake Funeral Home, who were just doing
their job.
Rep.
Betty Poirier of North Attleboro actually went to Dyer-Lake when word broke
that Tsamaev’s body was at the funeral home.
She said she had “no idea what he is doing here. I’m very unhappy he’s in our town.”
Poirier
was undoubtedly upset and concerned for her community. But you have to wonder if she called the
funeral home owners for an explanation prior to going before the media at their
business. Maybe she did, and wasn’t
happy with their answer. Maybe she
didn’t, and expressed her own frustration through her presence. Either way her trip clearly inflamed a
situation that needed no further provocation.
It was a poor decision.
The
worst thing we as citizens can do is to keep allowing these horrible human
beings to continue to exert control over our behavior. Reacting to where Tsarnaev’s worthless body
is being shipped for disposal is not a good use of our time or effort, and is beneath
us. We should let our hatred of him go
and use that wasted energy to concentrate on helping and supporting the injured
he left in his wake.
We
should not make innocent folks like the funeral home owners in North Attleboro
and Worcester targets for our frustration and anger. Let’s not allow Tsamaev to claim any more
victims.
Bill Gouveia is a local columnist and can be emailed at aninsidelook@aol.com and followed on Twitter at @Billinsidelook.
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