by Cameron Hill ’15
You don’t need me to tell you what happened in Boston. Our flags have been flying at half-staff for a reason: a terrible, tragic, unnecessary reason. When the Boston Marathon, a sporting event that regularly attracts 500,000 spectators and over 20,000 participants, was attacked on April 15, the world was shocked. Let us not forget that the last successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil was 9/11. However, in the wake of catastrophes such as this, we are reminded that we are human. We care about each other, we will stand together, we are strong.
In the past two weeks, we have been exposed to pictures of military Humvees driving down a deserted Boylston Street and heard stories of lives lost and irrevocably altered. But we have also seen our own Sarah Hubbard ’12 handing out donuts to members of the National Guard. We have watched Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert pay tribute to Boston. The Chicago Tribune honored Boston’s teams on the front page of its sports section. We have even heard “Sweet Caroline” through the loudspeakers at Yankee Stadium. During an actual game. In which the Yankees played. I certainly never thought that was something possible under any circumstances.
Across the country, in fact, many baseball teams have memorialized last week’s events in Boston. “Sweet Caroline” was played by the L.A. Dodgers, the Oakland Athletics, and the Atlanta Braves, among others, last week.
In London, runners wore black ribbons and held a moment of silence prior to the commencement of the London Marathon on Sunday.
Boston’s teams – the Celtics, Bruins, and Red Sox – have held moments of silence, and, in the case of the Bruins and Red Sox, have begun recent games with moving pre-game ceremonies.
This cartoon says it best: “we’re all rooting for Boston.” No matter what may define us, our political affiliation, gender, ethnicity, or favorite baseball team, we are one.
In his cartoon, Chris Weyant succeeded in a truly herculean task. Weyant needed to convey the respect and sympathy we all feel toward Boston, and yet be relatively comical in doing so. His cartoon worked, if Facebook is any indication. The cartoon had just under 200 shares and over 700 likes when I checked – only 4 hours after it was posted on The New Yorker’s page. You can read here what Weyant wrote about the sketch.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged on Monday for the use of a weapon of mass destruction. He remains in serious condition after his capture last Friday at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital. Justice will be served.
On Monday evening, federal officials returned custody of Boylston Street back to Boston’s Mayor, Thomas Menino. The T is once again running. The Red Sox are playing baseball. Boston is moving towards a new normal, but it will never forget.
The Marathon is sure to be different next year, but we know where Bostonians will be on Patriots’ Day 2014: right back at the finish line on Boylston. They are New Englanders, after all, and it will take much more than pair of cowardly terrorists to make Boston and her people go down without a fight.
