Tragedies separate people into two groups.  There are the people who try to improve upon a situation and there are the people who take advntage of it.  After the Boston Marathon bombing, we quickly saw our nation split into these two groups.

While most of the country was still reeling from the bombing that had seriously injured and killed three people at the Boston Marathon, there were people opening their homes to runners with nowhere to go.  This may seem like a throw-away kindness, temporary and without commitment, but think about the mentality of Boston at that point.

Bombs have just gone off in your city at one of your most populated events of the year.  The streets are covered in blood, and people are sure this is another terrorist attack.  You have no idea who is behind this, and you have no idea if there will be any more explosions.  Yet you still decide to let strangers stay in your home.

Within minutes of the bombing, marathoners ran two extra miles to the hopsital to give blood. Within hours, restaurant owners were giving people food and telling them to pay only if they could.  Within days, there were people designing and selling t-shirts to raise money for the victims’ families and the businesses destroyed by the bombs.

Then there was the other kind of people. There were the ones who used something as tragic as the loss of human life to immediately make their own political and religious points.

The people I’m talking about were mostly found on social media, accusing different religious groups of being behind the attacks when there was literally no evidence. This also applies to people talking about different policies in the government, as if this was some kind of “proof” that the government needs to make changes.  Seeing people on Facebook talking about “those damn Arabs” before there was anything released on the identities of the suspects shows how hateful tragedy can make some people.

Some points made may have been valid at another time, but they are immediately seen as insensitive propaganda  so soon after an attack on an American city.   Yes, the country needs to change its views on certain issues when attacks like this happen, but sensitivity should be the most important thing. Starting a discussion about gun laws or immigration based on this tragedy is fine, but wait until the blood has been cleaned from the streets first.

Everyone has a choice when reacting to a tragedy.  Some will use everything they can to help those affected by the disaster.  Others will muddy the waters.

Martha Schick is the Multimedia Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.