Originally, I wasn’t going to write about the Boston bombing because I didn’t think there was much that could be added to what was being said over and over on every station. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones or had a loved one hurt.

I also would commend the efforts of all agencies involved in catching the cowards who did this. Yes, cowards. You can call them terrorists, jihadists or home-grown terrorists, but really, I call them what they are: cowards.

They hunt out and plan to hurt innocent people and children. They do it in a sneaky way, in the shadows, with no courage and no spine.

It takes cold, hard courage to look the person in the eyes that you are about to kill or blow up. You’d have to look at them, their humanity, their emotion, their fear and then kill them. Cowards can’t do that.

But what does it take to do what they do, to plant bombs where no one will notice? They’re not placed to protect anything or keep someone out of where they shouldn’t be. They are placed simply to cause as much human suffering as possible, by cowards. I keep saying that because you shouldn’t think of them as freedom fighters or religious zealots or anything else but simply a coward.

While perusing Facebook and other blog-type sites, most of the posts talk about what a great job the police and authorities are doing. There were also comments about the cowards being “freedom fighters,” that they felt oppressed, or that they were “set up.” Please. Don’t even go there.

There are evil people in this world, period. Hitler, Stalin, and so on are prime examples. People who will kill you because they can’t take responsibility for their own actions, their own failures, their own inability to make a life for themselves.

The coward killers who committed the Boston bombings were just out to do evil. You will be told it’s because of a religious jihad or because they are radical Islamists. In this case, I submit, they were just evil people.

People don’t become evil because they “join” a religion or because they join a movement. It starts long before then. Many people leave a religion or group because they feel it’s going in the wrong direction or the principles change. Those people have character and truly want to do the right thing. But evil people seek out evil and justification for their anger to back up their hateful actions.

It’s a warped way of thinking when hateful people think they have been wronged by the big, bad devil known as the United States. The good life and the freedom we have make them mad because they don’t agree with it or they think they can never achieve it or worse, have tried and failed and need someone else to blame.

So the cowards kill and destroy because they think they are justified. They think they have divine guidance, but all they have is hate and evil.

Don’t feel bad for bombers, as misguided as they might be. These cowards knew what they were doing – and they didn’t care.

Pray for the families that lost loved ones and those who have family members recovering from injuries. If you don’t pray, then send good thoughts or feelings their way. They need all the help we can send.

Joe Messina is host of The Real Side (TheRealSide.com), a nationally syndicated talk show that runs on AM-1220 KHTS radio and SCVTV [here]. He is also an elected member of the Hart School Board. His commentary publishes Mondays.