A bout a year ago today, I was at the Celebration of Undergraduate Research when the news started to filter in. The Boston Marathon, an iconic race run on Patriots’ Day , a celebration of our nation’s independence unique to my state of Massachusetts, had been bombed.
For me, the next few hours were filled with confusion and anxiety. I was worried for friends and family who were cheering and running, and especially for my dad who planned to be on the route. No one in Boston could answer their phones, and no one really knew what was going on.
I finally managed to learn that no one I knew was hurt, but the city was on lockdown for a week. I stayed up all night, watching TV and texting my dad as heroic members of law enforcement finally caught the Tsarnaev brothers, Chechen extremists who were responsible for the senseless act of violence that had brought an entire city to a standstill.
The bombings were a horrific and disorienting event for the city of Boston and our nation as a whole. But the year since has been nothing short of extraordinary. The day after the bombers were caught, the Red Sox played and David Ortiz famously declared “This is our f***ing city. And nobody is going to dictate our freedom .” In the weeks afterwards, a memorial spontaneously grew on the site of the bombing , featuring running shoes, signs and flowers. “Boston Strong” became a catchphrase, emblazoned on T-shirts and tank tops throughout the city. Life in Boston returned to normal, and to top it all off, the Red Sox won the World Series.
Today, Boston will show the world its resilience. In the early hours of the morning, Paul Revere’s impersonator will ride through Massachusetts, warning us that the British are coming. Then re-enactors will replay the battle at Lexington and Concord (bold prediction: rebels over redcoats in an upset) that led to the birth of our great nation. The Red Sox will play at 11:05 a.m., as they always do on Marathon Monday .
And, starting at 10 a.m., 36,000 people will compete in the 118th Boston Marathon, with hundreds of thousands cheering them on . Some of them, who were stopped by the explosions last year, will step over a finish line that they have waited a year to cross. All marathons are a testament to the endurance and strength of the human body, but this year’s race in Boston will be a testament to the unbroken spirit of the American people as well.
So many of my columns have been about issues that divide us, so it seemed fitting that my last of the year should be about something that unites us. Today, the runners and fans in Boston will prove that just as we refused to yield to the British centuries ago, Americans will refuse to yield to those who wish to oppress us today. And they will prove that in moments like the marathon bombing, we are all Boston Strong.
