What a week! Horrible really, although it did have a great ending. I don't know where to start. So much has happened. I am so proud of my city. I am so proud of the marathon organizers that were thrown into a war zone and performed brilliantly. These people are volunteers, helping to organize an internationally acclaimed marathon and they end up seeing death and bodies literally blown to pieces, running with the injured in wheelchairs to get them to safety. I am so proud of the plain, everyday citizens using their shirts and using direct pressure and tourniquets to stop bleeding of severed arteries. A clothing store-owner used his stock for bandages and blankets. Fearless. Selfless. Heroes. And I am so proud of the surviving victims - many of them are already on the road to recovery with positive attitudes and smiles on their faces. One kid had both his legs blown off, seen all over Facebook and the news with a guy in a cowboy hat pinching off a main artery. I saw a picture of him in the hospital, in a chair sitting up with a Patriots hat and football with a member of the New England Patriots standing with him - he was smiling.So....next came three days of investigation. Who the hell did this to our people? Who did this to our holiday? We all felt violated. And angry. There was sorrow and sympathy. But there was love and support and strength, too. We all leaned on each other and waited. "You messed with the wrong city". Not a statement of dumb arrogance but a statement of strength and defiance. It was a message saying we are not going to cave or cower and hide.
Then there was the National Anthem at the Garden to start the Bruins game on Wednesday night. The first sporting event since the bombings. I cried. I sang and cried along with everyone else. It felt good and it sounded amazing. But the players (of both teams) salute of support to the fans was my undoing. I sobbed.
The support and outreach from all over the world, choked me up. It was unbelievable.
Thursday night comes and the FBI announce they have identified the losers that did it. A couple of young adults, practically kids, with baseball caps and sunglasses. My gut clenched the first time I saw those faces. [Expletive!]
Then I wake up Friday morning and see a post from a friend on Facebook that says "What the hell is going on?" I scroll through my news feed and discover all hell had broken loose in Cambridge and Watertown, two cities outside of Boston! Gun fight, more death, more bombs and the beginning of a manhunt like Massachusetts has never seen before. What a HORRIBLE day. I have friends and family that live in and around Boston and Watertown. Practically impossible to work. I got home at the end of the day exhausted and sick from listening to the news all day. I swore I wasn't going to watch TV for the rest of the night. I went to bed early and turned on "Rio". I had to stop myself from turning on the news. And I missed the best part, dammit! I missed the part were they found him! I missed the part where they fired flash-bangs at him. I missed the part where they dragged him out of that boat and put hand-cuffs on him.
But I DIDN'T miss the best part. The best part was yet to come. The residents that had been in lock-down all day came out of their homes, lined the streets and clapped and cheered as the police officers, swat team members, EMT and the FBI began to leave. It was like a parade. It was amazing! I have never felt more pride or gratitude for anything in my life. THEY GOT HIM!
No comments:
Post a Comment