Once again, the world has gone mad. When I saw the news break yesterday about bombs at the Boston Marathon, I thought there must be some mistake. Who would do such a thing?
Why does violence happen in April in this country? NBC news is reporting that a lot of this craziness happens in April – Virginia Tech (2007), Columbine (1999), Waco siege (1993) , Oklahoma City (1995)
Yesterday was also Patriot’s Day in Boston.
And yesterday the world went mad and someone blew up Boston during the Boston Marathon.
Among the victims an 8 year boy. Thanks to something reporter Karen Hepp from Fox 29 said, I found the Daily Beast and two additional articles in both the Boston Globe:
A perfect Marathon day, then the unimaginable
By Kevin Cullen| Globe Columnist April 16, 2013
It was as good a Patriots Day, as good a Marathon day, as any, dry and seasonably warm but not hot like last year. The buzz was great. While the runners climbed Heartbreak Hill, the Red Sox were locked in another white-knuckle duel with the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. The only thing missing was Lou Reed crooning “Perfect Day” in the background….In an instant, a perfect day had morphed into something viscerally evil.
The location and timing of the bombs was sinister beyond belief, done purposely to maximize death and destruction. Among those who watched in horror as a fireball belched out across the sidewalk on Boylston were the parents of the schoolkids murdered in Newtown, Conn…This is how bad this is. I went out Monday night and bumped into some firefighters I know. They said one of the dead was an 8-year-old boy from Dorchester who had gone out to hug his dad after he crossed the finish line. The dad walked on; the boy went back to the sidewalk to join his mom and his little sister. And then the bomb went off. The boy was killed. His sister’s leg was blown off. His mother was badly injured. That’s just one family, one story.
That little boy’s name was Martin Richard. He had his whole life ahead of him. What the hell did that innocent child do to deserve to die? Also among the injured were two brothers who each had a leg blown off as per the Boston Globe. Can you imagine being the mother who got this call?
There were hundreds of Pennsylvania residents in Boston running the marathon, including those from Chester County (all of whom The Daily Local is reporting to be o.k. and safe). One such person was Kathie Iacabone Redmond who many know simply as Kathie who works for Yellow Springs Inn. Kathie had safely crossed the finish line twenty minutes before the explosions began as per the Inn and her family.
ESPN has this list of PA runners posted and here are some runners from Chester County as per that list (not sure if this is all of them or not they quantify this list as PA runners who finished the marathon):
4188, Kathie Redmond, Coatesville, 3:45:23.
8653, Robert C. Mauch, Phoenixville, 3:46:46.
4406, Barbara J Lombardo, Chester Springs, 3:46:58.
4793, Kelly A. Fisher, West Chester, 3:49:52
5051, Mary E Suplee, Phoenixville, 3:51:52.
5547, Jennie D. Brown, West Chester, 3:55:28.
5781, Page C Greenberg, Malvern, 3:57:26.
5884, Sarah E. Weddle, West Chester, 3:58:18
10195, Bill Conway, Downingtown, 4:03:37
6733, Johanna Hantel, Malvern, 4:08:34
Kathie Redmond was mentioned in conjunction with 2011 coverage of the Boston Marathon too:
Scenes from the Boston Marathon route
A friend in spirit in Hopkinton
When 2011 Boston Marathon registration shattered previous records and closed in just over eight hours last October, one of those shut out was veteran qualifier Kathie Redmond of Coatesville, Pa.
But Redmond’s running partners got in, and they made sure she didn’t miss this year’s race – sort of.
Out on a training run one day, Nancy Stoltzfus of Parkesburg, Pa., struck upon an idea: bringing a blow-up doll to represent their friend. After some Internet searching, she found a source: a website for bachelor party supplies.
“We don’t want her to feel left out,” Stoltzfus said at the starting line before the race. “She was heartbroken she didn’t get in.”
After Redmond finished a Pennsylvania marathon last weekend, Redmond and fellow Marathoner Amy Barcus of Atglen, Pa., took her neon green jersey and shorts and turquoise bandana and put them on the doll, before pasting on a printout of their friend’s face. The doll made the weekend rounds up north, including the runners’ expo in Boston, but was going back on a shuttle bus.
I have friends from high school who now live in Boston. I spoke with one last night. She had some anxious moments because the exchange students living with her were down in Copley Square. But thankfully they had left about twenty minutes before the bombs exploded.
My personal opinion is this was an act of domestic terrorism. And I hope they capture whomever quickly. And I could do without the Obama side debates on guns for the time being. These weren’t guns, these were bombs.
Do we have to wonder now every time we go to a street fair or a local festival if we will all come home? Is this the objective of these people? That everyday Americans living their lives must live in fear?
Screw that. As someone who walked out of the World Trade Center in February 1993 just seconds before the truck bomb went off in that garage and as a less than two-year survivor of breast cancer I will live my life. As best as I can.
My heart goes out to anyone waiting to hear from loved ones after the Boston Marathon and to the people of Boston. How someone could defile yet another of America’s finest cities escapes me. But Boston is made of tougher stuff than the cowards who tried to blow her up.
You can follow developments in the story via their NPR station in Boston WBUR, along with major media outlets – who of course have descended on Boston like a hoard of locusts already. I am following the Boston Globe and the NBC affiliate up there WHDH Channel 7 and the New York Times:
WHDH: Feds search apartment, seek clues in Boston attack
BOSTON (AP) — FBI agents searched a suburban Boston apartment overnight and appealed to the public for amateur video and photos that might yield clues to who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing, while a doctor treating the wounded said one of the victims was maimed by what looked like ball bearings or BBs.
Two bombs blew up seconds apart Monday at the finish line of one of the world’s most storied races, tearing off limbs and leaving the streets spattered with blood and strewn with broken glass. Three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and more than 140 were wounded.
Federal investigators said no one had claimed responsibility for the bombings on one of the city’s biggest civic holidays, Patriots Day. But the blasts raised the specter of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Investigation of Boston Marathon bombings continues
Some areas of downtown Boston reopen Tuesday
By John R. Ellement| Globe Staff April 16, 2013