Comparison between Boston and Syria

I have heard a lot of talk lately amongst friends, colleagues, and classmates making comparisons between the Boston Bombings and what happens in select regions of the Middle East. After seeing this picture, obviously they aren't the only ones who feel this way. In roughly one week, we have had a major terror attack take place on a US holiday, the shooting of a police officer, kidnapping of a victim, identification and apprehension of the suspect(s), and have had a written criminal complaint go viral on the internet. In Syria, much more severe tragedies happen, much more often, and we never hear about who or what the reason was behind them.

This got me thinking: "Why is everyone creating this comparison between the two?" First of all, it makes us look like awful global citizens as the few times we see a name we can't pronounce scroll by at the bottom of a news broadcast, we are quick to dismiss it if there hasn't been a recent US tragedy. Secondly, I feel like this is the only country in the world where a person can be run over by his brother in a getaway chase after killing a cop and innocent people and people would be partying in the street after we caught him. Sure, it's a victor, but a somber one at best. Finally, shouldn't this make us as citizens of the world be more inclined to help out those innocent people being killed very similarly to the way they were in Boston? Just because we are separated by a significant amount of distance, culture, religion, and race does not make us all that different. They are people who have the right to live, just like us, and every day that right is overcome by radical acts of violence to enforce a political statement.