Thursday, April 18, 2013

At last the silence is lifted, hear, hear!



I have not blogged all week because I have been absorbing the information coming out about the Boston bombings. I spend the first 24 years of my life living within 10 minutes of Boston city limits. Parts of my hometown touched parts of Boston. I was there all the time. My dad was in the press stands for the marathon each year during much of my childhood, teenage, and early adult years.

My first reaction was to call him to find out if he was okay. Luckily he is semi retired and they had given the assignment to some other reporters. So he was fine. Then I got a call from my uncle, talking about my cousin working the finish line, but that she was okay and he didn't have any other news. I found out later that she had been working across the street from where the bombs went off and got away quickly. I admit it gave me 9/11 flashbacks, as I remember how the terrorists flew out of Boston. The vulnerability and embarrassment I felt in conjunction with all the other emotions. I felt guilty that our city let those people in, let the nation down, and the people of New York.

What I have seen since has shown me that the rest of our country, especially NY does not harbor the same feelings, at least not any more. The amazing outpouring of love from our rival city shocked me. I was humbled. I was also bereft over the emptiness of it.

It's hard to understand such wanton violence when the perpetrator thinks they have a reason, it's impossible when there is no reason, when it's chaos and destruction for its' own sake a la The Joker in The Dark Knight. How much more frightening it becomes when there is no one to fight. And now with reports of an innocent women, (a doctor no less, devoted to saving lives)! being attacked and blamed by someone for the attacks it is even more upsetting. It was so disappointing to hear after feeling such pride for those who were there and pitched in to help, the volunteers, cops, firefighters, bystanders and locals. It makes me think of Mayor Green's speech on Jericho.

Johnston Green: Hey, Shep? You said earlier that you had heard that speech before. Ever ask yourself why I say it? 'Cause I happen to trust you people. 'Cause I love my town. Now, something happened in Denver, in Atlanta, and it could be that we wake up and find out that's where it stopped. But, until we know, are we going to use our imaginations to solve problems or to cause them? Now, we can get the power back on. We can find out how big this thing is. If we have to we can fight. We can fight anybody, we can fight all enemies. The only way that's going to happen is if we work together. Now, go on home. We'll meet tomorrow at the town hall. And folks, don't you break my heart again.

Nothing could be more apt. Use your imaginations to solve problems, don't create them. Don't look for terrorists in a crowd of people , don't create phantom suspects out of your fear, instead look to the ones who created the people finders, and housing finders because that is where we can do the most good. (This is a picture of me at the Boston Commons last summer.)

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