What If It Had Been the Phoenix (or Dallas or Mobile) Marathon?

Let’s say the tragedy we have just witnessed had not taken place in Boston – that it happened instead in a place of which the elite disapprove. What do you think would be the media narrative?

I suspect that what we would be reading in New York Times and Washington Post columns and op-eds would be something like this:

Tragic as the recent bombings at the Phoenix Marathon were, they were also wholly predictable. It was inevitable that young Muslim men, facing the constant hostility toward all foreigners and people of color that is rife in Arizona, would finally snap and strike back at their tormentors.

The only surprise is that it was Muslims who finally shouted, “Enough!” rather than Mexicans, Native Americans, or any of the other groups that suffer the dreary conformity of the desert metropolis – one of the least diverse cities in the country, and one, not coincidentally, actively hostile toward diversity.

This is not to justify the bombings, of course, but merely to point out that Phoenix has long been a disaster waiting to happen. Isn’t it past time that the city’s leaders take action against the haters in their midst and try to make Phoenix a more welcoming place for those whose only sin is being different?