"No More hurting people" A sign by Martin Richard

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Tuesday April 16, 2013 · 3:23 PM PDT

2013/04/16 · 15:23

I just saw a photo of 8 year old Martin Richard holding a colorful sign he had made that said "No More hurting people" "Peace". It had a peace sign and hearts drawn on it. Looking at that photo literally hurt. It moved me to write. I can't do justice to that little sign drawn by the hand of a little boy who I'm sure was smiling and laughing while standing waiting for his father to cross the finish line at a community and family event. He was murdered in an explosion that was packed in an improvised explosion device (IED) and detonated remotely. The monsters responsible for the device and its explosion knew with absolute certainty that innocent children would be at that event and it didn't matter to them. No one is sure who those monsters were but we will find out. But when we find out Martin Richard will still be gone, he will no longer be drawing and coloring signs that contain more love and wisdom than any book that has ever been written or by any god ever worshiped.

Looking at his photo I thought of all the children of earth and how we let them down each and every single day. I remember when my children were little they wanted reassurance that there were no monsters in their closets or under their beds and I reassured them. Most of us tell our children there are no monsters- we lie to protect them. We know there are monsters and we know that the worst kind of monsters are one of us.

As a planet we don't deserve our children. When events happen such as those that happened yesterday in Boston reactions vary. Most of the time people respond with an overwhelming desire to help and those are our angels. Fortunately we have more angels than monsters but this event has struck me differently than all others, especially after I saw the photo of Martin Richard and his sign.

The monsters responsible for his death need to be brought to justice swiftly. We don't know who they are yet but we will. If this is home grown terror our justice system will take care of the perpetrators, but what if it's not home grown what then? Then we must respond swiftly with determination and an iron will. This must stop.

Martin Richard's sign asks us to no longer hurt each other and to create peace in the world we live in. We evidently are not advanced enough as a species to make this a reality for our children. And just as we lie to our children about there not being any real monsters in the world in order to protect them, we must also protect them by fighting for the kind of world that they can safely live in and for the kind of world that cherishes and cares for its children. We have failed young Martin and that today hurts most.

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"No More hurting people" A sign by Martin Richard

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