As a nation, we have watched the incident in Boston and been saddened by the loss of life and cruelty exhibited by some unselfish, uncaring individual  or individuals.
Hopefully, those who were responsible will soon be caught.
The best and the worst behavior of humans have been shown.
There are those that stopped to help, and those that ran toward the explosions instead of away.
These things happened in our country.
Yet, across the world it was a deadly day. In Iraq, 31 people died and more than 200 were injured in explosions. Flooding in Kenya left 36 people dead this month and displaced 52,000.
A minimum of 35 people died in Pakistan from an earthquake- most likely, there are many more. What about our soldiers fighting overseas?
Who can forget the December, 2004 tsunami where it is estimated over 200,000 people died?
It is almost unimaginable in this country.
These tragedies remind us to be grateful of the peacefulness that this country has for the most part, and those soldiers, police officers, fire fighters and other emergency personnel that work to keep it that way.
While we  cannot do much to help those in Boston, we can say thanks to those who serve and have selflessly served that make this country mostly safe and prosperous expecially  in our own city, county and state.

Karen La Pierre