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Humanity is Better Than This

I grew up outside of Boston.

Patriots’ Day meant we got the day off of school and the Boston Marathon and the Red Sox were on TV. If the day fell on tax day, federal and state taxes were delayed a day.

Patriots’ Day, or Marathon Monday, is a day of celebration, banks are closed, schools are closed. Post offices are closed and many businesses are closed. It is early spring and Massachusetts throws a party to celebrate the coming of spring. The Boston Marathon and the Red Sox gave us all reasons to celebrate.

I was back in Boston today to cheer on my best friend and partner, Krista Lawell, in her ninth Boston Marathon. It was a beautiful day for a run today in Boston. Temperatures were in the low 50s and the Red Sox won in the bottom of the ninth inning with a walk-off double off the Green Monster in Fenway Park.

Krista ran a great race, and I met her with my sister-in-law and seven-year-old niece at the finish line. There were congratulations, and there were lots of smiles. It was a great day for a run.

Krista and I were back at the hotel when I got a text from my sister-in-law.

“We are fine turn on news.”

My phone started beeping. The newscasters warned that the video footage that we were about to see hadn’t been edited. After a few seconds they quickly switched away from it and apologized for what we had just seen.

It was a grand Marathon Monday in Boston, until it blew up.

A marathon is a test of will and endurance. A marathon is also a test of the human spirit. Those that attempt to complete it and those that do are to be admired. It is a demonstration of what humanity is capable of accomplishing.

Marathon Monday celebrates this, but instead today police cars are everywhere in the city. Fire trucks are making circles through blocks one at a time. Some hotels have their guests on lock down.

It is Marathon Monday and it is a day of sadness when it should be a day of celebration.

Explosions took the celebration away today, but they cannot take the joy out of our lives.

Humanity is better than these explosions, those running the race and the spectators standing on the sidelines of the course cheering blindly for people they did not know is proof of that.

Tonight, in a hotel in Boston our thoughts are with those that were injured and to the families that suffered losses.

There will be time to mourn. But we can be better. We can be stronger. We will run another day and celebrate those that run 26.2 miles. Explosion and terror cannot take that away from us.

Humanity is better than this.