Patton Oswalt is one of the funniest comedians around — and he’s also just a damn decent human being, writing one of the most poignant, hopeful notes of the day regarding the explosions at the Boston Marathon.

It’s presented below, in full. Check out Oswalt’s Facebook or Twitter for more from him — including what I’ll assume was the quote that inspired his post, from Mister Rogers.

Boston. Fucking horrible.

I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, “Well, I’ve had it with humanity.”

But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.

But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”

This article appears in Apr 11-17, 2013.

5 replies on “Patton Oswalt’s Words of Wisdom Following the Boston Marathon Explosion”

  1. I believe that most people are decent, hard working, and just trying to do the best they can. Am I ever wrong? Sometimes with a frequency that’s downright absurd. But my faith is always restored. Sometimes by the words of those like Mr. Oswalt. Sometimes by the guy sitting next to me on the bus (no, not THAT guy, the other one). Besides which, the alternative leads to a place where one believes that 47% of people are lazy no-accounts who just want free stuff. I can’t be that guy.

    If my only choices were to be a victim of the darkness, or to become part of it, I would choose the former. Of course, ideally, one should avoid both.

  2. It was done using a pressure cooker, now our government (obamanation-biledon) will have to have an emergency meeting on banning pressure cookers. We all know how well they react when the pressure is on.

  4. Now people can understand why I’ve been a Patton Oswalt fan for years; he simply can’t be beat for articulate, intelligent and funny observations.

  5. Patton Oswalt has the right idea. There are a few bad seeds, but people for the most part are good.

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