I was shocked and saddened, as I’m sure all of you were, by Monday’s news of the tragic bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The whole country was touched in some way by this needless and senseless act. Then there are the innocent victims of the blast, their families and countless others whose lives will never be the same as a result of the cowardly act.

There are tweets and posts on all the social media sites, many of which seem to be playing the blame game. Times like these are not the time to place blame on the President, Congress, National Security or anyone else… we are all Americans and we must pull together to get though these kind of catastrophes. It is these senseless, spineless acts of terror that are intended to weaken and divide our country. The whole point of these types of attacks is to keep our nation unfocused.

These random, senseless acts of violence are appalling. They shock the senses, causing grief among us who had no personal connection to the losses.  These acts are terrorism, and it should make no difference whether they are domestic or international as, in my humble opinion, they should be treated as an act of war and the person or persons responsible should brought to justice as an enemy combatant instead of common criminals.

As we all awoke to Friday morning, the news broke that Boston Police, the FBI and our nation’s military had descended on the Boston suburb of Watertown where two men, two brothers with native roots in Russia and Kazakhstan, were named as the bombers. Before the sun rose on Friday, one brother had died in a firefight with police while the other brother was on the run.

But before the latest developments in this sad story unfolded on Friday, it needs to be mentioned there were also heroes that tragic Patriot’s Day (Monday) in Boston…the police and fire departments, EMS, security and too many others to name. It seems that at our lowest point in time our public servants rise to the occasion and become super humans that can remove themselves from the moment and fulfill these jobs. One can only imagine the chaos and confusion these men and women were experiencing….somehow they managed to block it all out and treat the dead and wounded.

Thursday, law enforcement authorities allowed photos to be published of the two people of interest. If the second of these suspects is captured alive – and I doubt he will be – my only hope is that he be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

We cannot prevent these types of perverse, gutless humans who are intent on doing immoral acts on our great nation. Their soul intent in life is to create havoc and harm the innocent.  These demented souls deserve much more punishment that we as a civil nation can do to them.

Please pray for all the victims, and their families. Lord knows, they all have an uphill battle in front them.

Please be diligent and aware of your surroundings. Our small communities so far have eluded these types of terror. Should you see anything suspicious please report it to the nearest authorities.

Joe Cowart is Publisher of Roanoke-Chowan Publications. He can be contacted at joe.cowart@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7218.