The Johnny Kelly statue at the foot of Heartbreak Hill is often festively decorated but on this gray, rainy morning, one year after the Boston Marathon bombings it stood solemnly unadorned. Share your memories about where you were one year ago, how you look back on this event, the year since and your plans for next week’s marathon.
April 15, 2014: Share your part of the story
by Greg Reibman | Apr 15, 2014 | The Marathon | 13 comments
Here’s a statement issued by Congressman Joe Kennedy…
“This week we carry Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu and Officer Sean Collier in our hearts. We pray for their families and for those still healing. We honor the brave men and women among us who rushed into harm’s way to prevent further loss.
“But this anniversary is not just about the city we were on that tragic day. It’s about the city we have been every single day since. A community drawn together not just in grief, but in resilience. A town whose scrappy and stubborn reputation does not do justice to the level of kindness, compassion and courage it displayed. A place that vowed its children would remember not just terror and tragedy but goodness and strength.
“Today, and for years to come, may we work to tell that story.”
Hmmm. I must say that when decided to take this photo at Heartbreak Hill early this morning to use on Village 14, I expected there would be dozens of comments, if not more, here by this time.
Anyway, I found this to be a very emotional day and was really moved by the events in Boston today. I did not cry on April 15, 2013. I did today.
Everyone’s story that day — and that week and in the months since — is relevant. That’s what makes this a communal event.
I was near the Convention Center when the bombs went off. (I decided only a few hours earlier to go to Boston on that beautiful Marathon Day, instead of watching along Comm Ave in Newton, as I usually do. I never told my significant other or anyone that I was going to Boston, which has always felt a little eery in retrospect, given what could have happened.)
I had been in front of Lord & Taylor 45 minutes earlier but decided to slowly walk towards Mass Ave. I heard the first explosion and thought “Wow that sounded like a bomb but no one is running, so it must not have been one.” Then people started running. Or at least moving, the streets were too jammed. The runners will still dashing towards the finish line at that point. No one had stopped them yet.
It was odd for me, since I was less than a year removed as a journalist, so my instincts to run in and cover the story conflicted with my sense of responsibility as a husband and father to keep myself safe and make sure my family was. So I walked to Brookline, hopped on the T, found my kid, let Cindy know we were OK and parked myself in front of the TV.
The stories this week from those injured — physically and emotionally — who’ve lived with this every day have been jaw dropping inspiring.
I can’t wait to stand and cheer the runners on next week.
I’ve been having a hard time getting my head around the events of last year. I think in part that’s because it’s the second time I was somewhat proximate to a major terrorist event, a situation which I have written about elsewhere.
That Monday I was getting ready to go overseas on a short business trip. I and a colleague of mine had coverage of the marathon on in the background while we were frantically trying to get a few final things done before heading to the airport. All of that got put on hold as the reports of the bombs started to come in.
I have several friends who were running that day, so I spent the next few hours trying to reach everyone to make sure they had been clear of the area (they all were, though I learned later of friends of friends who were badly injured).
We should be incredibly proud of how our community came together. New York kind of responded like this after 9/11, but then it went away a little bit. Here it feels more local, more ours. I do hope that we hold onto what this attack reminded us: That we are a community, that we are strong, we are resilient, and that we look out for each other, always.
Thanks for sharing this Greg. Maybe everyone is reluctant to be the first one?
I was out of the country last Marathon Day and had limited access to television or the internet. We learned the news from Facebook but we didn’t know much.. I was able to establish that my daughter who was watching the race was safe and that everyone I knew who ran was ok, but I knew very little beyond that. I was traveling with my son, which was wonderful, but I was very homesick. I flew home Thursday night and woke up Friday a.m. to the lock down. It wasn’t until Friday that I even started to understand how horrible the scene was. I still think that, because I wasn’t here, I absorb a little more about it every time I read something.
I was trying to get in touch with a close friend with whom I served in Afghanistan (and watched run by less than an hour earlier), he turned out to have been running past the second IED. We shared some dark humor over the irony of having got back from Afghanistan a year earlier and not being able to just leave the explosives over there.
As far as Boston’s reaction, there are ups and downs. I found the reaction to have been over the top and was a little upset by the overall complacency with police pointing rifles at families and driving the same gun trucks we use in the Marine Corps.
A year later I look at the Boston marathon as something which has not kept up the “Boston Strong” title. Costumed runners (a long time tradition) have been prohibited, but more disturbingly members of the Armed forces and various schools ROTC units who ruck the marathon for various charities will not be allowed to do so.
To me, Boston strong is hollow, and in a very large way, the community has given in to terrorism. It isn’t what people like to hear, and of course there are many courageous and heroic acts in the mix, but like 9/11, the country has taken many steps back in the name of safety.
Mike
@Greg, I was typing a comment yesterday about being at mile 17 with the Dan-Faber volunteers but then stopped (and this may boost comments) because I was/am “Marathon Memories” out. There has been so much coverage, much touching and well done, that I don’t want to hear (nor till now) say anything more about last year’s event.
I am looking forward to this year’s Marathon volunteering on Friday with the BAA handing out bibs and plan to watch again at mile 17. I have spent Patriot’s days cheering on the runners since I moved to Boston 25 years ago and plan to continue. Maybe this is point that everyone is trying to make but let’s just do it.
Went to the Sox game as I do every year. Was at Jillians/Lucky Strikes when the bombs went off. Heard them both. We were saying that it must have been canons or something. Then the news was all over the many TV screens in the bar. Then the manager turned them off so as not to alarm the people still buying drinks in the bar.
All of our cell phones immediately lost all of their battery because I guess when you are battling for reception it costs you more battery. Found friendly place in Remys which gave us juice.
I agree with Mike in that some of our reaction to the events have been anything but ‘Strong.’ I’ve been embarrassed by our collective reaction to the Rolling Stone cover and article. Weakness.
All the safety precautions this year are overkill and simply too late. What really happened last year is that the security teams failed to detect 2 large back packs left unattended at the busiest part of the race.
Perhaps after 12 years we all became a little complacent which is to be expected. For me I thought back packs were the very thing the police always focused on a large assemblies of people.
@Colleen: I recognize that you are totally negative towards anything and everything that our municipal government is even partly involved with but, really, are you suggesting that our public safety officials make no attempt to learn from the past?
Let’s not let criminals/terrorists win.
Let the costumed runners and “bandits” run. Let the ROTC hike. Let’s not let a crime turn us upside down. Let’s not be afraid of our shadow… or Wonder Woman running in the marathon.
We win by moving on. We lose if we identify as chronically potential victims.
Thomas Friedman wrote a great piece in the NYT the day after the marathon last year. He describes how the Israelis react to a bus bombing. Immediately clean up and the next day you’d never know it happened. We must let the bad guys know that their sick actions have left no trace on our society or way of life.
Here’s the perspective of a journalist friend of mine on the marathon bombing coverage. It’s courageous and worth reading.
Learning from the past is one thing and I can understand implementing increased security measures around a closed off area at the beginning or end of the course where individuals enter and exit a defined area. However, it’s altogether something entirely different when the police declare that they are “reserving the right” to stop and search the effects of anyone passing along miles and miles of public ways without any probable cause, without any reasonable suspicion whatsoever. The fact that something horrible happened a year ago is no substitute for requiring law enforcement to obey the Constitution.
Of course we should learn from the past… but the fact is as long as we live in a free society (well whatever is left of it anyway) there will be violence and terrorism.
I say again, “Boston Strong” means letting terrorists win apparently, because that is without a doubt exactly what has taken place.
The most hilarious thing is it’s just as easy to kill a bunch of people after any major sporting event, at a protest, rally, on a bus, on the MBTA, etc. By implementing the 100s of millions of dollars worth of security measures that continue to push us further into a police state you are just as likely to be blown up at the Marathon this year as you were last year, and you are just as likely to be blown up/shot/run over as you are any other day anywhere else.
Those who are smart know this is about control. Incremental increases in control. If any of you haven’t read 1984, it is incredibly creepy how spot on Orwell was… just off by a few decades.
Mike