By James Smithwick
It may be hard news for some to swallow, but just when the world wants people to believe love and faith for humankind has withered and died, along comes a bombing to prove them wrong.
That may sound peculiar to some, but think about it for a moment. People continue from day to day living their lives without so much as a scattered thought for random people they pass on the street or line up behind at Starbucks. The sound of thousands of feet pounding the earth echoes around them, but inside, their world scarcely trembles.
Then, from seemingly out of nowhere, a tragedy strikes, like the recent bombing of the Boston Marathon.
As the race was winding down, two shoddy, homemade bombs fashioned out of pressure cookers, batteries and ball bearings detonated and brought chaos to an otherwise victorious afternoon.
The whole sordid affair was captured on video by local news crews, and that video shows not just the carnage and fear, the destruction and disrespect for human life. It showed much more than that.
Reports from the scene indicated that the first explosion rocked the crowd approximately 100 yards from the finish line. Then, some 15 to 20 seconds later another blast further down the street detonated, exacerbating the situation and spraying shrapnel on bystanders’ backs as their attention was drawn to the location of the first blast.
But upon closer inspection, another series of events can be seen – events that show how humanity and compassion are not dead; how very much alive they are.
Within seconds of the explosions, people – not just policemen and emergency medical personnel – average people went into action. Runners and onlookers, both wounded and uninjured, along with the race security and public servants sprang into action without a moment’s hesitation.
In the midst of complete bedlam, the citizens of Boston proved they knew the meaning of courage.
Superheros in everyday clothing began tearing away the bent and broken remnants of the barriers and grandstands blown apart by the bombs, pulling the wounded to safety. Children separated from parents were swept up and carried to protective areas out of harm’s way.
Runners ran from the finish line almost directly to Mercy Hospital to give blood. Marathon fans and spectators began reviewing cell phone videos they captured for clues. People began to help what way they could, any way they could.
After the initial wave of disorientation and terror began to subside, messages began appearing on Twitter and Facebook, telling those left with nowhere to go and no one to help them, that average people were opening their homes and apartments to shelter them, give them a meal or a place to charge their phones so that they could contact worried loved ones.
And when cellular service went down, as is typical for post-traumatic events, the average citizens set up computer farms in their homes giving the stranded victims a chance to connect with the outside world to send an I-Love-You via Facebook, or to change their flight reservations so they wouldn’t miss the chance to go home to their families.
In the valley of the shadow of death, it’s hard to remember to think of others’ safety. In the days after the terrible events in Boston, the focus of every person, not just those directly connected to the atrocities of that day, should be protecting each other, and thinking of one another’s health and safety.
Hats off to Boston for remembering that.
Each man IS his brother’s keeper. As long as that fact remains, compassion and humanity will live on far beyond the day some cowardly assailant tried to kill them.