Октябрская Metro Station

Today I went down to the main entrance to the subway station that got bombed on Monday. It still smells like fire, and nobody is allowed to go downstairs yet. But near the doors, both inside and outside the vestibule, people have laid thousands of flowers and hundreds of candles. I could have shed a few tears, but I'm a tough guy so I held them back. Nevertheless, my heart aches not just for the lives lost, but for the lives affected in so many unkind ways.

The perpetrators have been caught, and they deny any political motivation. According to The Moscow Times, it was simply the work of psychopaths. Not everybody accepts this explanation, of course, but I am inclined to go along with it. It reminds me of recent American tragedies like Columbine High School and the Beltway snipers, the work of disturbed individuals with no particular goal.

I hope that the people of Belarus are able to close the book on this in some way and find the strength and compassion to begin rebuilding lives and community together. It would be an even greater tragedy if a couple of lunatics form a basis for damaging the fabric of a society that tends to use the word "our" with real pride.