Passionate about arts/culture (music/film/TV), travel, food, global affairs, social justice & faith.
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I’m here today on behalf of the American people with a simple message. Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city. Every one of us stands with you. Because, after all, it’s our beloved city, too. Boston may be your hometown but we claim it, too. It’s one of America’s iconic cities. It’s one of the world’s great cities. And one of the reason(s), the world knows Boston so well is that Boston opens its heart to the world.
Over successive generations, you’ve welcomed again and again new arrivals to our shores; immigrants who constantly reinvigorated this city and this commonwealth and our nation. Every fall, you welcome students from all across America and all across the globe. And every spring, you graduate them back into the world — a Boston diaspora that excels in every field of human endeavor.
Year after year, you welcome the greatest talents in the arts, in science, research. You welcome them to your concert halls and your hospitals and your laboratories to exchange ideas and insights that draw this world together.
And every third Monday in April, you welcome people from all around the world to the hub for friendship and fellowship and healthy competition — a gathering of men and women of every race and every religion, every shape and every size — a multitude represented by all those flags that flew over the finish line.
So whether folks come here to Boston for just a day, or they stay here for years, they leave with a piece of this town tucked firmly into their hearts. So Boston’s your home town, but we claim it a little bit too. I know this — (applause) — I know this because there’s a piece of Boston in me.
Like you, Michelle and I have walked these streets. Like you, we know these neighborhoods. And like you, in this moment of grief, we join you in saying: Boston, you’re my home. For millions of us, what happened in Monday is personal. It’s personal.
Our prayers are with the injured, so many wounded, some gravely. From their beds, some are surely watching us gather here today. And if you are, know this: As you begin this long journey of recovery, your city is with you. Your commonwealth is with you. Your country is with you. We will all be with you as you learn to stand and walk and, yes, run again. Of that I have no doubt. You will run again. (Applause.) You will run again because that’s what the people of Boston are made of.
Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act. If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, to shake us from those values that Deval described, the values that make us who we are as Americans, well, it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it. (Cheers, applause.) Not here in Boston. Not here in Boston.
You showed us, Boston, that in the face of evil, Americans will lift up what’s good. In the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion. In the face of those who would visit death upon innocents, we will choose to save and to comfort and to heal. We’ll choose friendship. We’ll choose love. Because Scripture teaches us God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.
And that’s the spirit you’ve displayed in recent days. When doctors and nurses, police and firefighters and EMTs and guardsmen run towards explosions to treat the wounded, that’s discipline. When exhausted runners, including our troops and veterans, who never expected to see such carnage on the streets back home, become first responders themselves, tending to the injured, that’s real power. When Bostonians carry victims in their arms, deliver water and blankets, line up to give blood, open their homes to total strangers, give them rides back to reunite with their families, that’s love.
That’s the message we send to those who carried this out and anyone who would do harm to our people. Yes, we will find you. And yes, you will face justice. (Applause.) We will find you. We will hold you accountable. But more than that, our fidelity to our way of life, for a free and open society, will only grow stronger, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power and love and self-discipline.
Like Bill Ifrig, 78 years old — the runner in the orange tank top who we all saw get knocked down by the blast, we may be momentarily knocked off our feet — (scattered laughter) — but we’ll pick ourselves up. We’ll keep going. We will finish the face. (Applause.)
In the words of Dick Hoyt, who has pushed his disabled son Rick in 31 Boston marathons, we can’t let something like this stop us. (Applause.) This doesn’t stop us. (Applause.) And that’s what you’ve taught us, Boston. That’s what you’ve reminded us, to push on, to persevere, to not grow weary, to not get faint even when it hurts.
Even when our heart aches, we summon the strength that maybe we didn’t even know we had, and we carry on; we finish the race. (Applause.) We finish the race, and we do that because of who we are, and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend, a stranger has a cup of water. Around the bend, somebody’s there to boost our spirits. On that toughest mile, just when we think that we’ve hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. We know that.
(Sustained applause.)
Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be, that is our power. That’s our strength. That’s why a bomb can’t beat us. That’s why we don’t hunker down. That’s why we don’t cower in fear.
We carry on. We race. We strive. We build and we work and we love and we raise our kids to do the same. And we come together to celebrate life and to walk our cities and to cheer for our teams when the Sox, then Celtics, then Patriots or Bruins are champions again, to the chagrin of New York and Chicago fans. The crowds will gather and watch a parade go down Boylston Street. And this time next year on the third Monday in April, the world will return to this great American city to run harder than ever and to cheer even louder for the 118th Boston Marathon.
(Sustained applause.)
Bet on it. (Sustained cheers, applause.)
Tomorrow the sun will rise over Boston. Tomorrow the sun will rise over the —- this country that we love, this special place, this state of grace. Scripture tells us to run with endurance the race that is set before us. As we do, may God hold close those who’ve been taken from us too soon, may he comfort their families and may he continue to watch over these United States of America.
21st April 2013
Notes: 3
I’ll say it again.
People running towards explosions to help. Blood bank rejecting donors because they’re at capacity. All wounded made it to hospitals and survived.
Restaurants staying open to provide food and battery for charging phones, Dunkin Donuts especially, by request of local law enforcement officials.
Google doc with lodging offers. Massive photo and video upload to aid investigation.
Survivor comes to and first thing he does is offer description of suspect.
Suspect was found because a Watertown resident kept his eyes open after lockdown was relaxed, saw the blood around the boat and lifted up the tarp, then immediately went home and called 911.**
Quick on the uptake. Look out for each other. Tough as nails. Don’t mess with this city. City of Heroes. City of Minutemen. #bostonstrong
**Correction:
The Watertown man who found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding in his boat says he is an “incidental hero.”
David Henneberry tells WCVB that contrary to what’s been reported, he did not see blood outside his boat. There was “no indication of anything.” Instead Henneberry was simply going outside to fix some foam rollers that had fallen off.
When he rolled up the boat cover, he saw blood on the floor of the boat, then he looked toward the front and saw more blood. When he looked toward the engine, he saw a body. He did not see a face.
“It’s surreal,” Henneberry said. “I wasn’t out on the prowl. I was out to see my boat and I stumbled upon this.” (source: The Two-Way, NPR)
His words were, ‘I levitated off the ladder.’ He does not remember going back into the house. He told his wife, ‘Lock the doors,’ and he called 911.” (source: New York Times)
In case you were wondering, like I was.
#Bostonstrong.
The Rev. Eugene Kim, executive pastor and director of the Christmas concert, said the gift is an extension of the church’s mission.
“We’re just doing what the church is supposed to do,” he said. “We’re supposed to be a community that loves each other and loves others and loves God, and that worships and serves. It’s an old-fashioned idea.”
That’s my home church in Greater Boston, Highrock Arlington! I was blessed enough to sing in this choir for two years, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. The funds raised from the concert go towards funding a part-time social worker position for families in crisis in the town of Arlington.
“When we moved into town, & bought the building, we really felt the desire to be a part of the town, & basically just do what we feel Jesus calls us to do as Christians, which is to love our neighbors.”
What we actually saw/heard. Emily Elbert at Harvard Square for Mayfair! Covering “Thriller.”
A rare, cherished spot of beautiful weather in the Boston area!
…and this is when I made another check off the mental bucket-list.
See Feist live. Check.
UPDATE: She’s Emily Elbert!
Someone needs to tell me who these people are because they are KILLIN’ IT at Harvard Square. (Taken with instagram)
Back when the Boston boys were nobodies. Love it!
Thank you to everyone in Boston who’s watching this at home—thank you to the city of Boston!
