“Explosions injure dozens at Boston Marathon; many JPers in race.”
So read the headline that Gazette reporters, still in shock, wrote atop a breaking news story on the afternoon of April 15, 2013.
For nearly four days, the news only got worse. JP’s Faulkner Hospital filled with victims of the maniacal bombings. Nearly everyone here knew someone in the race or near the finish line, and feared for them. DigBoston news editor Chris Faraone, a Gazette political columnist at the time, was among the near-victims. So was an entire Kentucky family of 22 people who stayed in JP while visiting Boston for the marathon.
JP was also represented among the best humane responses to that barbaric crime. JP’s Jarrett Barrios, CEO of the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts, ran in the marathon, then spent the night helping victims. Carlos Arredondo, a peace activist well known for his JP activism, became an iconic hero as he rushed to help rescue the wounded.
We said at the time that Boston and the marathon will be defined by the collaborative goodwill of all Bostonians, not by the mayhem of senseless criminals. In the past year, Boston has proven that truth over and over.
The locals running this year’s marathon are great examples. Some ran last year, coming close to being bombed; their response was that they absolutely must run again this year.
We continue to mourn the victims lost forever and the wounds that can never be made whole again. We also applaud the survivors and the participants who are responding to terror, hate and madness by getting back up and running to that finish line once again.