What the Shea

Remind me: dressing for Boston spring is like dressing for LA winter, right?

sanfranciscoburning:

Hey Boston. How’s it going?

Not too good, I know. Some terrible things went down today and no degree of justice will undo them. At the time of this writing, no one knows who is behind this tragedy. No arrests have been announced in relation to today’s bombing, nor have any individuals come forward to claim responsibility for the attack. A lot of people are scared, and everyone’s a bit confused. After all, some bastard just set off a bomb that killed an eight year old child and at least two others, while injuring over a hundred more. It’s hard not to be scared today, and almost impossible not to be confused. And that’s okay. We’ll be okay, Boston. As long as we don’t let the bastards win.

I know that’s easier said than done. How can we combat these “bastards” when we don’t know who they are, or what they want? True, it’s difficult to know how to fight back against something like this, where the enemy is unclear and their agenda may well stop at the slaying of innocents. How will we protect ourselves when the perpetrator is revealed? Or perhaps more importantly, how will we protect ourselves if they are not?

Do not let the bastards win.

Today’s bombing has already been deemed an act of “terrorism” by many, and indeed it may be. Still we will remind ourselves that terrorism is not a blanket category for all attacks of this type, but a tactic used to maximize the influence of the few on the lives of the many. The true targets of terrorism are not the bodies of those inside the blast, but the minds of all those looking on from the outside. Today we were in the blast, Boston, and there are an awful lot of people looking at us. Our response is already being watched, and it’s on us now to be the finest damn town we’ve ever been. 

Whether or not today’s events have been an act of terrorism is, at this stage, irrelevant. It is of no interest to us what the bombers stood for, if anything, or what they hoped to accomplish. The result is the same: we may be shaken, but we are standing. Stay that way, Boston. Stay standing. Do not bend even an inch— for the villains who attacked our people, or the fools who would tear out and offer up the heart of our city if it would only ward them off.  

Stand against them all. The bombers may be few, but the bastards will be many. They will come from many backgrounds and many will have noble intentions. Fight them nonetheless. We do not yet know the identity of the those behind the bombs that detonated at the Boston Marathon, but that does not make us lost for direction. Finding bastards, you see, is easy. 

Every hack journalist who tries to sensationalize today’s events with wild speculation or sensational headlines for monetary gain, every friend spewing hate for our Muslim neighbors, and every reactionary politician who hastily pushes for new laws that provide the illusion of safety while robbing real freedoms. These are the bastards we know. These are the bastards we must wake up and fight tomorrow.

Do not let the bastards win.

By and large, the investigation into today’s tragedy is outside of our hands as citizens. Hopefully by now anyone with even the slightest shred of insight into the explosions at Copley Square has reported them to the authorities, and beyond that we can do little to further the case. What we can do, and must do as citizens, is to be excellent— categorically excellent, to ourselves and to each other. 

Today we saw a community torn apart and brought together. We saw hundreds of residents opening their homes to strangers stranded in chaos of today’s events. We saw an immediate, outstanding response not only from professional first-responders, but average citizens doing anything they could to care for those affected— from offering free nourishment at locally-owned restaurants to offering so much blood to hospitals that many would-be donors had to be turned away. We saw an outpouring not only of empathy and condolence, but kindness and good will from every corner of this city, and I expect nothing less from Boston. I expect nothing less tomorrow. I expect every citizen of Boston to fight the bastards wherever they are and in whatever form they might come. We cannot afford to tolerate racism, nor turn a blind eye to the abuses of power that may come under the guise of public protection. Do what you can, say what you must, and fight the good fight.

Today I saw my city’s heart break, but today was not altogether a bad day. Today I saw my city’s heart.

Do not let the bastards win.