Polito's Take: Tamerlan's earthy, crunchy, granola burial

No good deed goes unpunished and I'm about to perpetuate that old cliché. Martha Mullen, 48, did a good thing for the wrong reasons.

The Virginia woman coordinated efforts to help rid Massachusetts and my hometown of some garbage. She is credited with being the catalyst that got terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev out of the fridge in a Worcester funeral home's basement and into the ground at a Muslim cemetery in Virginia. She had no connection to the family, the funeral home or the cemetery, and took it upon herself to solve a problem that weak-kneed politicians ran from. We all owe her a great debt of gratitude.
 
That being said, Ms. Mullen is also a fool. She told the Boston Globe that protests outside the funeral home, "Portrayed America at its worst. The fact that people were picketing this poor man who was just trying to help [funeral director Peter Stefan] really upset me."

Ms. Mullen heard about the situation in Worcester while listening to public radio. She got the inspiration to help while in an upscale coffee shop. Was she sipping a half-caffe double latte while scanning liberal blogs on her tablet? I don't know for sure, but I can make several assumptions about her political leanings.
 
Ms. Mullen was offended by the "hate" that protesters displayed outside the funeral home. She was not alone, an ultra-liberal member of Worcester's city council removed signs from a fence that she deemed offensive. I saw more than enough video of the protesting crowds. That intersection is not exactly the showplace of Worcester's finest citizenry. It is a poor neighborhood with all the requisite social ills. The members of the media far exceeded the number of protesters.
 
If I had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Mullen, I would ask her to elaborate on her embarrassment over the behavior of protesters. I would inquire as to whether she felt that same sense of shame over the prolonged public tantrums of the "Occupy" movement. These protesters stood in the way of more than just one person who was trying to do their job. In many cities, small business people who had the misfortune of residing near the encampments lost millions of dollars. Police were injured in scuffles and women were sexually assaulted while protesters turned city parks and streets into open sewers. Illegal drugs were consumed and taxpayers' hard earned dollars were wasted in police details, clean up, and restoration efforts. In the end, no one can give a coherent answer as to what it was all about. Wasn't that America at its worst, Ms. Mullen? At least the protesters outside the funeral home had a legitimate beef. They didn't want the body of a terrorist in their community. I may not agree with some of their language, but they were not the country at its worst.
 
Thank you, Ms. Mullen for helping to remove a problem from our state. I'll be calling the next time Occupiers show up so you can help us to take out the garbage again.

Cox Media Group