I put this up on my Facebook page, so I thought I'd share it here. I know this area of Boston quite well - I'm there 50 times a year. You can't help but feel like you're a part of something bigger when you're in and about Commonwealth Ave, Boylston Street, Copley...the place is just so alive and beautiful and...international.
Yesterday hit home for me. I thought about it a lot, and thought, too, that 33 people were killed in a bomb blast in Iraq yesterday. These poor people have been going through this kind of trauma day after day for ten straight years now. Unfathomable.
So I tried to make some sense of it, and wanted to share...
Been trying to collect my thoughts here...
At the Boston Marathon, people take drinks or even unwrapped food from perfect strangers, all with a smile, a thanks and no small amount of trust. The race is a personal competition full of nothing but winners, where onlookers cheer wildly for people they don't even know, and only the runner looks at the clock, if he or she even bothers at that point. The victory has already been achieved.
Patriots Day in Boston is one big party. The Red Sox play in the morning, the city is one big celebration of sport, of country, of humanity. At Fenway on Sunday, we saw runners from all over the country and the world, just enjoying the city and the springtime weather.
Someone tried to take all that away. Well, to that wretched person, I say, you failed. You brought senseless misery to a lot of people, nothing more. You made no statement anyone wants to hear. And if you think that your act of cowardice will bring Boston down for long, then, well, you just don't understand Boston.
On a personal note, I know several people who were at the blast site: the son of a friend and his newlywed wife who were blown back by the blast, but who are, thankfully, all right; the aunt and young cousins of someone very dear to me - one of the kids was hit with shrapnel but is, thankfully, home and okay. There are probably more...
To everyone affected, I'm sending good thoughts. To all who rushed in to help, bravo - you represent the best of human nature, in the face of the worst.
And to anyone reading this, I implore you, do not use this to foster divisiveness. We don't know who did this; angry speculation aimed at "the left" or "the right" or "the Islamists" or any other group, does nothing more than give the bomber a little victory. You see those people lying in blood? You see those people running in to help, disregarding their own safety to try to do some good? Some are Democrats, some are Republicans, some are Christian, some are Jewish, some are Muslim, some are atheist, some are Americans, some are from other countries.
All are...people. Just people. Understand that and those who would commit such acts of terror cannot ever win.
Peace,
Bob