Ever have one of those moments that makes you hesitate to bring something up because you are afraid of what people might think or how they will react? Well, I am in that moment. Ever since the bombing here in Boston I have been trying to figure out if there is a way for this horrific event to help us show the world the power of our humanity.

 It feels so much easier, so much more right, to feel compassion for the victims and contempt if not outright hatred for the perpetrators. How can we want to do anything other than punish the ones that we believe killed 8-year-old Martin Richard, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, and 23-year-old Lu Lingzi, murdered M.I.T. Police Officer Sean Collier injured 264 innocent people, terrorized thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people, caused martial law to be declared in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, confined hundreds of thousands inside their homes, and closed cities and towns?
 

 Ask the protesters outside Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors, the funeral home in Worcester that is trying to take care of the funeral arrangements for the accused dead bomber, and their signs tell you: “Bury the Garbage in the Landfill,” “He should not be buried on U.S. soil,” and “Shame on U Mr. Stefan”. The latter is a message from protester Pat Hildreth of Rindge, NH to Peter Stefan, funeral director and owner of Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors. Ms. Hildreth asked WBUR National Public Radio reporter Deborah Becker, “We’re going to bury a dead terrorist? What does that say about this city? About our country?” You might ask yourself: What do our actions say? Are the protesters expressing their anger, asking us to show the world the power of retaliation, or something else?
 

 Does Mr. Stefan’s willingness to honor his professional duty as a funeral director tell the world that we will not let anyone, even those that we believe act like monsters, take away our power to act humanely, or does it say something else? When cemeteries refuse to bury the man we believe bombed us are they telling the world that we want to condemn the man that we believe was a monster? That we understand the funeral and the burial are not about the dead they are about the living and we cannot put the need of one man’s family above the needs of others? Or do their actions tell the world something else? What about the people offering support to Mr. Stefan? What are they saying to the world?
 

 I wish I knew what our actions tell the world about us. What do you think? Is there a way to show the world that we will not give monsters the power to take away our humanity? Can we rise above hatred with the compassion of justice? Please give me a ring at 781-331-5308 or, if you prefer email me at kristan@mooneytunco.com.