Thoughts:

• We should establish a national holiday for recognizing emergency response teams, Good Samaritans, and all of the other folks who give days like these a strong silver lining.
• While laughter seems unthinkable for many at present, I want to thank the funny-makers in advance for helping us cope in the days to come.
• Earlier I wrote: “Please do everything possible to confirm facts before posting disaster-related updates via social media. I hate to reiterate, but from what I’ve seen thus far reiteration seems necessary. At this point, speculation and suggestion is not helpful.” I have to say that I was relatively impressed by my feeds compared to what they looked like on the days of previous disasters and incidents. Further, NPR went out of its way all day to be explicit about what were known facts and what has not yet been established. The programs I listened to did a pretty impressive job of not theorizing/speculating.
• While it would be cynical and opportunistic of the Federal Government to use this as an opportunity to further strip us of our civil liberties, I don’t doubt that efforts will be taken to do so.
• Meanwhile: “A series of bomb blasts across Iraq on Monday killed at least 42 people and wounded more than 257 others, police said.” Ugh.