MIT Police Officer Sean Collier

I would like to take a moment and thank Sean Collier for his service as a police officer. He was killed on Thursday evening a week ago as a direct result of the FBI's decision to release the videotape of the 2 men suspected of perpetrating the bombings at the Boston Marathon and his funeral was yesterday. There was a sea of fellow officers who came to pay their last respects, which was very nice to see.

There are so many potential risks that first responders in general and police officers in particular face each and every day they are on the job. Officer Collier undoubtedly had a lot more experience with things like drunk and disorderly and students hacking into buildings than he did with bomb makers and automatic weapons. His young life and his short career were unfairly ended this past week. As we will undoubtedly be reminded by a 24/7 media what the terrorists look like, what their names are, where they are from, and what they did and did not like and do, I plead the case of the heroes, the people who take on the role of protecting us, and ask that if only for a moment that we make the same effort to remember them.

Officer Collier was gunned down. Gun violence is a major American problem. Terrorism by foreign nationals is a miniscule problem compared to the legacy of gun violence--today, this week, this year, this decade, this half century. No matter the time frame, gun violence wins. By a landslide. It is desperately sad and ultimately humiliating that our elected officials are beholden to the arms industry rather than to us. The most elementary of laws to begin a path towards sparing people's lives was defeated in the Senate last week. Money talks, and we lose. Officer Collier loses too. So let's go back to majority rules--both in the Senate and in the nation. We can be so much better than this.