Boston Marathon Terrorist Attack

Boston is essentially my home town even though I grew up in a close suburb. When I was asked where I was from, in college, I would say Boston. Beantown is pretty cool place and might be the largest college city in the US with more World Class Universities than one can remember. Start with Harvard and MIT then add Boston College and Boston University plus Northeastern and that leaves out many others.

Sports is a big thing in Boston and unless you are from Boston or a Marathon runner I doubt it is possible to understand how big the Boston Marathon is. It is part of the Patriot's Day celebration which remembers Lexington and Concord for the start of the fight for our independence around 240 years ago.

To those participating in the Boston Marathon it is truly a family event and even for locals it matters a lot. Many take in the traditional Boston Red Sox 11:05 AM Patriots day game and rush to the finish line to see their friends and relatives finish which is the truly evil part of this terrorist bombing. 3 PM is the time the crowds are the biggest because all the non elite runners who are usually running for a cancer charity or a diabetes charity are arriving. The sidewalks are packed with the families and friends of the runners as all strive to witness their friends and relatives finish this monumental race because the Boston Marathon Course is one of the most difficult in the world.

Over 500,000 people line the streets from Hopkinton to the finish line cheering everyone on from the man who has pushed his handicapped son in this race for decades to the elite runners who are world class champions. It is both a world class sports event and something special for all who participate.

Over the years I have stood on the sidewalk across from Lord and Taylor's where the second bomb went off cheering on a friend or old acquaintances from times gone past. I cheered a brother as he basically walked by me crippled with cramps but intent on living his dream of finishing the Boston Marathon. I watched a man finish the Marathon with his wife and kids proudly cheering and screaming with the knowledge I introduced him to the woman he loved. I watched him die when the World Trade Center Towers came down on 9/11/2001. He was a friend who knew me in NYC but never knew of my past and we ran with a club through Central Park. I thought of him when i heard about the bombing and the anguish it must have caused his wife since she was on the phone with him when the Tower went down.

I ran when I was younger but never had the ambition to run a marathon.  I ran for the exercise and freedom I felt when I took my early morning runs in the hills or at the beach in California and continued that when I returned to Massachusetts.

When I saw the picture of the 8 year old boy who had his life snuffed out by these evil bastards I saw my nephew who is hos spitting image. I wondered what my older brother must be thinking looking at that picture that so looked like his son a few years ago. That boy's mother and sister were both critically injured by the explosion and lost limbs.

As I watched the video I was amazed and always will be amazed by the courage of the EMTs, police, and many others who ran to the explosion to help rather than away from it for safety. It is one of the things that separates us from these animals that perpetrate these kinds of terrorist attacks. We really do care for our fellow man in times like that. It is a miracle that only three have died but a lot of that is because ordinary people just looked terror in the eye and said screw you and went to the aid of the injured and maimed.  The tourniquets they applied while chaos reigned around them saved many lives.

I guess the worst part for me is these scumbags set the bombs off knowing families and children would be there.  They wanted to maim women and children for terrors sake. Somehow they think this is justified yet they have not taken credit and in fact I believe Al Qaeda has said they had nothing to do with it. I guess worrying about an Obama drone putting a hellfire missile up their ass has been effective.. It is not under any circumstances.

We will catch the terrorists that perpetrated this and they will face a justice system that owes them no mercy if they are arrested. If they are caught by a Seal team or other special ops personnel they should know prisoners are not an option so you are dead. In so many ways I really feel sad for the people that did this because how black does a heart have to be to do this? There is nothing socially redeeming about this yet it happens daily in this world and on Monday it touched America.

We will continue living because it is what we do, so regardless these butchers have lost whether they realize it or not. Justice sometimes can have a blind eye but justice will take its true form and these people will be caught and punished.

The other sad part is many of the people seriously injured will possibly be saddled with millions in medical bills along with incredibly long recoveries and the need to replace lost limbs. How do explain to a child how someone could do this to them. I certainly would not have the words.