We are thankful that none of Commonwealth’s employees were directly affected by the terror attacks of last week. However, as I suspect most people who have lived or worked in this city would attest, Bostonians have a deep, almost spiritual connection with their city.
Over a century ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem simply titled “Boston”, in which he chronicled the pivotal role that the city had already played in advancing the cause of human freedom. The poem opens:
“The rocky nook with hilltops three
Looked eastward from the farms.
And twice each day the flowing sea
Took Boston in its arms.”
Founded by farmers and fisherman, the hardworking Puritans of Boston within a few generations would become the cradle of the American Revolution, firing the first shots against tyranny. In the century that unfolded after that war, the city grew into a powerful center of commerce, and also was home to some of the most influential figures in the fight to abolish slavery. By Emerson’s time, the city was engaged in a massive public works project: filling the “back bay” with earth and building on it a neighborhood of lush parks and stately Victorian homes which to this day stands as a monument to the most civilized urban living which can be found anywhere. As the 20th century unfolded, Boston personified the American concept of the melting pot: white Anglo-Saxon Protestants melded first with Irish and Italian immigrants, and then to newcomers from every corner of the globe which helped fuse Boston into one of the greatest centers of education, health care, and culture that the world knows. We are prou to have our headquarters here.
And so it was here in this cradle of enlightened, western progress that the terrorists attacked us. I have walked through the massive memorials in both Oklahoma City and lower Manhattan – read the names of the thousands lost on those days. Boston’s tragedy will not be remembered for the numbers of the dead, but for the fact that the attack came as we were celebrating one of the greatest expressions of shared humanity – gathering to cheer on runners of every ethnicity as they competed in a great contest.
By a strange set of circumstances, I had the extraordinary experience of spending some time with a parent who had just learned that their child had been killed in the violence in Boston last week. It was one of the most heartbreaking couple of hours I have ever spent…witnessing grief in its most raw form.
While we will doubtless be more vigilant than ever before, let us not give evil the victory by withdrawing into our zones of comfort and failing to reach out to each other to strengthen our common bonds by encouraging the weak and comforting the bereaved. As occurred in Oklahoma City and New York, in London and Tel Aviv and the countless other places where the forces of terror have struck, the images of fear and sadness have already begun to give way to signs of strength and hope. As I walked down Boylston Street today, the memorial to the lost was already a visible symbol of inspiration to those who passed it. The simplest expressions of strength were not names etched in marble, but the numerous Red Sox caps with the words “Boston Strong” scrawled in marker by ordinary people.
We will not be cowed by fear. Humanity marches forward…the marathon will be run again. As Emerson summed it up:
“For what avail the plough or sail,
Or land or life, if freedom fail?”