Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Body: Rites and Rights

Mr. Tsarnaev

In an earlier post, I commented on some of the strange, logically and psychologically contorted responses to the Boston bombings, such as David Sirota’s  early “I hope the bomber’s a white guy” article. The weirdness apparently continues. Meghan Darcy, writing on Policy Mic, has accused the United States of being “barbaric” for refusing to bury Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

I don’t know if I agree that everyone “deserves” a place of burial, as Ms. Darcy has asserted. No such right can be found in the U.S. Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1793. Apparently, Ms. Darcy believes that her own sensitive feelings are sufficient to make assertions of universal rights and obligations.

Ms. Darcy

The bizarre part, though, is the accusation that the murdered was not yet buried because the United States refused to bury him. “There have been countless articles,” She writes indignantly, “asking why other countries and religions seemingly hate America … refusing a body burial and religious rites is a pretty good reason. But maybe that’s the new plan; maybe the U.S. hopes to deter future terrorists with the threat that if they die on U.S. soil they won’t be given a proper resting place.”  Let’s overlook her senseless suggestion that “other… religions seemingly hate America” (Is America a religion?  Can a set of beliefs and practices hate?) Let’s also overlook the fact that no critic of American foreign or domestic policy has ever complained about the unavailability of funerals for murderers in this country.  The claim that the U.S. has refused to bury Tsarnaev is clearly and obviously not only wrong, but ridiculous. The United States has never refused to bury anyone as a matter of policy or for any other reason.  The federal government has no authority in this matter.

At the time that Ms. Darcy wrote her piece, no city or town within the United States had agreed to accept the remains. This civic reluctance cannot be attributed to any pressure from the national government. Surely, since Ms. Darcy has such exquisite sensitivity on matters such as the civilized treatment of dead murderers, she should be able to extend a tiny bit of that sensitivity to the grieving people of townships in Massachusetts and elsewhere.  

An update at the top of her article informs us that someone has provided a burial plot and quietly resolved the problem of the unwanted body. Apparently, no representative of the United States interfered in any way with this civilized proceeding.

My point in writing this is not that one blogger shows a poor grasp of facts and an inability to think clearly.  Rather, I suggest that her craziness is symptomatic of a reflexive self-righteousness among some of our fellow citizens that leads them to cast aside reason and realism whenever they can find any excuse, however far-fetched, to preach against the evils of Satan America.