I was going through my Twitter feed Monday morning when I came across this: “Happy greatest day of the year, #Boston!” And so it is. Or was, until about 2:50 p.m., when explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon transformed a celebration into a scene of carnage.
What matters now, needless to say, are the victims — the dead, the injured and their families and friends. But if you are looking for some insight into Boston at this horrible moment, it helps to understand why our marathon matters and where it fits into our civic psyche. Why it was, until Monday, our greatest day of the year.
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Yesterday’s events were stunning and sad, of course. I’m always fascinated by the perspective, however. We as Americans are calling the bombing a “cowardly” act.
But let’s say the bomber(s) has ties to Middle East causes, and this was an act of revenge? Couldn’t our persistent drone attacks there be considered equally cowardly? We cheer Braveheart, for example, while intellectually setting aside the fact that William Wallace was a terrorist to the British.