by lil

I had some mail with StephenBuckley in Boston. I thought the community might be interested in his comments about life under seige:

Things are going alright for me- so far I don't know anyone affected, though there were some crazy pictures going around my work email. The mood in Boston is mixed- the actual percentage of people affected is fairly minor in terms of wounded/dead, so there's a sort of distance from everything- for most of us, this isn't really happening. But I work about 3 blocks from Copley square, where the marathon bombings happened, and all week there have been soldiers patrolling the streets, blockades, the T station is shut down, and there's just this air hanging over everything that the things being said on the TV aren't just make-believe. Even if you don't know someone you will have your ID checked by armed people. You will be intimidated, even when they're nice, because parts of Boston are now occupied territories. And that's the other thing that keeps striking me- how incredibly unsettling it is to be around armed police officers or soldiers this frequently. It's unnerving. I cannot honestly imagine life in an occupied country- even the few dozen soldiers I've seen this week make me want to stay indoors! What if this was my whole life? Syria, all over Africa, there are places where what's happening here isn't called a tragedy, it's called Tuesday. And having even a sliver of that put into perspective for a little while is fucking terrifying.

Hubski - have you experienced something like Boston today?