Rolling Stone magazine has Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover … appearing like a teenage heart throb – a rock star, a movie star, a nice guy.
The fact is … he is a deadly killer.
As I’ve said before — after the bombings, the execution of a police officer sitting in his car, throwing bombs at pursuing police … in my opinion Tsarnaev is NOT a suspect … he IS A KILLER.
So, now comes Rolling Stone with a full feature article titled: The Bomber: How a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam and became a monster.
Wow, that just makes me feel so bad that I’ve been so hard on him. Let me apologize for my insensitive remarks and condemnation.
I’ll put an apology — the end of this post, but first, let me say, clearly, there are factors in all our lives which shape our actions.
Family or lack of family is one of the biggest influences as we develop.
For those of us who had loving, instructive and corrective parents, we can have a hard time understanding what it would be like to be denied that relationship.
I don’t doubt that Tsarnaev The Bomber might have been “created” by his parental, sibling and religious influences.
But here’s the break in that theory.
I know many loving, caring, successful men and women and teens who have come from a traumatic upbringing. By the Grace of God, support of others or their own determination they were not going to be forever shackled by harmful acts of their parents, siblings and others.
A pastor once told me: There are cases where bad kids come out of good families and there are cases where good kids come out of bad families, but those are exceptions.
Maybe there was a time when Tsarnaev could have saved himself, but he was too weak, too indecisive, too willing to please despite the cost or maybe at a time when he was just … too little to do anything but follow.
There’s no way to truly know the dynamics behind closed doors at his house or behind his eyes.
There are things to “explain” what he became, but there’s nothing to “excuse” what he did.
There certainly is no excuse for what Rolling Stone did with the cover photo … making Tsarnaev look like such a “nice boy” … someone you might like if your daughter brought him home for dinner.
When I look at the picture, I see … bloodied bodies torn apart by Tsarnaev bombs. I see dead and walking wounded. I see first responders rushing in to help, despite the possibility of another explosion.
So, here is my apology for what I’ve said about Tsarnaev before he was so glamorized by Rolling Stone.
First, to my followers, I apologize … for showing the Rolling Stone picture, but I did it only to illustrate why I’m so angry.
Then, for Tsarnaev, I apologize … for nothing I said in the past or present about you.
I will say that I am sorry … that your bombs did not blow up in your faces before you and your twisted brother put them at the feet of innocent victims.