On April 15, 2013, the bus that was supposed to take me home was late. It was scheduled to arrive at 2:53 PM EST and leave ten minutes later. April where I live is usually very pleasant, but on this day, it was cloudy and slightly chilly. Naturally, I had forgotten my jacket at my home, safely in the closet where it was as useless as a brick. So I stood there, in the cold, shivering and wondering “Why me?” “Why do such bad events have to happen to me?”
Of course, my ride eventually arrived, so I sat down and opened the Twitter application on my phone and started my usual scrolling through of my feed. As a sportswriter, most of my 1000+ follows are of like-minded people with similar interests. Due to the fact that I am a Boston sports fan, a large percentage of those follows are writers for various websites and news outlets in the city.
I didn’t learn of the events in Boston until about 3:15 PM, and I was shocked. Bombs in Boston? An explosion on Boylston? What had happened?
Here’s a great chance to explain my ties to the city. It’s my adopted hometown. I’m a Bostonian at heart, and I had loved all of the events of Patriots’ Day for many years to that point. The 11 AM Red Sox Game and the Boston Marathon were a celebration of Boston and its people. This day symbolized the Battles of Lexington and Concord in the American Revolution. It was a day to celebrate American independence and the role that New England played in our secession from England.
The confusion was maddening. Of course, I went home and turned on CNN and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Patriots’ Day was Boston’s day. It was a day for Bostonians around the world to celebrate their history. Had someone really tried to bomb the Marathon?
In the succeeding days, we learned of two brothers who had placed bombs at the finish line. They had killed three innocent humans and had caused further damage to thousands of others. The damage left behind by the brothers was repairable, but the trauma they caused for the people affected was not.
Sports are the best healers of pain and suffering. The home run by Mike Piazza in the eighth inning of a game between the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves in the first MLB game in New York City after the events on September 11, 2001 is iconic. President George Bush even threw out the first pitch at a World Series game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees in the Bronx that October.
On the Wednesday following Patriots’ Day, the Boston Bruins played the Buffalo Sabres in what would be the first game in the city since the bombing. On that night at the Garden, Rene Rancourt came to sing the national anthem (Rancourt always delivers a rousing national anthem at all home Bruins playoff games).
Yet, on this night, it wasn’t Rancourt’s voice that symbolized Boston. It was of the Bostonians attending the night’s game. At an ordinary hockey game, thousands of people sang along with Rancourt, who then reserved himself to only conducting the crowd. Even on TV, the voice of the crowd was moving.
Two days later, one of the brothers was killed with the other captured by the police in an intense chase in Watertown, Massachusetts. Another innocent human lost his life in the events, bringing the total number of casualties to four.
One day later, the Red Sox were set to play the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park. The ceremony involved first pitches, with Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick and then Boston Police Department commissioner Ed Davis in attendance.
Then, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz picked up a microphone, and addressed the crowd at American’s Most Beloved Ballpark. In his short speech, he thanked Patrick, Davis, and all of the other first responders for their actions in helping overcome this crisis. Then, Ortiz said five words on national television that truly summarized the events of the past week.
Those words? “This is our ******* city.” Those five words represent much more than what their obvious connotation implies.
On April 19, 1775, the Revolutionary War’s first battles officially took place. This war was instigated in part by the insurgents residing in Boston, such as Samuel Adams and John Hancock. The war showed the world that underdogs could win, that it was possible to defeat the British army.
238 years later, two individuals attempted to sabotage Boston’s day. The celebration of our founding fathers and our Patriots could not be taken away by a terrorist attack. But they tried.
“This is our ******* city.” I agree with that, but it could be expanded a bit. This is our country. The United States belongs to us, those citizens that love it most.
The United States will always stay resilient through thick and thin. Yeah, we hate the Yankees, and the Yankees hate us, but guess what? They played Sweet Caroline, a song which is an eighth inning Fenway tradition, at Yankee Stadium after the attacks. More than anything, the United States came together as one on that day, and will always do so when adversity strikes.
On a day when Bostonians celebrate the Revolutionary War, when a group of rebels defeated the greatest army in the world, the Hub was attacked. More than 2 centuries later, the Americans won once again.
[Photo Credit: Scott M. Lacey]
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