Apropos of nothing, but after the week we've had, I needed some levity. Clearly the stars were in some catastrophic alignment and it just seemed like an endless level of stress to endure. But now that it's calmed down a bit, I feel the need to give a little perspective.
As awful and horrifying as the Boston marathon was, it was six deaths (three at the marathon, two police officers and suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev) and approximately 140 injuries. That's bad, no one disputes that. But you know how many people died at the Deepwater Horizon explosion? Twelve. I don't know that we'll ever get an honest accounting of the injuries as a result of poisoning of the gulf. And there's no bloodlust coming from Lindsey Graham to hold those corporations responsible. There have been 3,530 gun deaths since Sandy Hook, including 11 on the same day of the Boston Marathon, one of whom was a one year old baby. But Congress doesn't think closing the gun show loophole is politically doable. Two days ago a bomb left in a coffee shop in Iraq killed 27 people and left 50 injured. This week, the Syrian government launched two air strikes against their own people, killing at least 25, including many children. In Afghanistan, a British soldier shot four Afghan boys at close range, killing three of them. And in Guantanamo Bay, 63 indefinitely detained prisoners are starving themselves to death.
It doesn't make me feel better to know that it's worse elsewhere, but it should be a reminder to all of us that life is fragile, precious and worth savoring for however long we have. There are no guarantees; safety is illusory. My heart grieves for Boston, but it also grieves for the others as well. And the value of a human life should mean something, no matter its geography.
ABC's "This Week" -- ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas; Chief National Correspondent Byron Pitts; ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams, former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, and former FBI agent Brad Garrett; Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass; ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz; and editor of The New Yorker David Remnick. Author Dennis Lehane.
NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich; Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg; NBC's Tom Brokaw; historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan; NBC’s Justice Correspondent Pete Williams and former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- Bob Woodward, The Washington Post; Gloria Borger, CNN; Michael Duffy, TIME Magazine; Lesley Stahl, CBS News.
CBS' "Face the Nation" _ Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick; Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis; Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; Carlee Soto, Erica Lafferty and Neil Heslin, who lost relatives in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.
MSNBC's "UP with Steve Kornacki" -- Guest list not provided.
MSNBC's "Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Guest list not provided.
CNN's "State of the Union" -- McCaul, Giuliani; Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and William "Mo" Cowan, D-Mass.; former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; former Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Stephen Flynn, founding co-director of the George J. Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security at Northeastern University, Philip Mudd, a senior research fellow at the New America Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health fellow Jessica Stern and Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens.
CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- Mediaite’s Joe Concha, The Washington Post's Erik Wemple, and Lauren Ashburn of The Daily Download; Callie Crossley, host of WGBH radio's "Under the Radar with Callie Crossley," USA Today's Christine Brennan, The Washington Post's Vernon Loeb.
"Fox News Sunday" _ Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. Panel: Bill Kristol, The Weekly Standard; Jane Harman, President of Woodrow Wilson Center & Fmr Congresswoman (D-CA); General Michael Hayden, Fmr CIA Director & Principal at The Chertoff Group; Juan Williams.
So, what's catching your eye this morning?
