For Boston…

2009 Lahore, 1972 Munich, 1996 Atlanta, 2008 Colombo….

And sadly the list could go on…

…and today we are forced to add Boston 2013 to it.

***

This Tweet sums it up for me:

The finish line of a marathon is a joyous place filled with love, and personal achievement, and where few would think of their own safety.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

***

A joyous event turned into the blackest nightmare imaginable.

**

Be safe, Boston.

Be safe, everyone.

**

Edit. Mark Joyella is a weekend news anchor in Orlando, but his coverage of the bombings on Twitter was simply phenomenal. Professional yet personal; informative yet visceral.

Interspersed with well sourced RTs, were these personal messages of hope and anger and sadness:

The thought of a pipe bomb left in a bag, dropped by the feet of children? It seems to light up the medieval justice part of my brain.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

If you’d asked this morning, I’d have said I couldn’t imagine a better place to take a child than the finish line of the #BostonMarathon.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

 

Feel helpless? Give blood. Donate money to groups that do good work. Hug a cop. Tell somebody you love them. Let go of resentment.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

A major marathon like Boston is a world event, and anyone who would target it, its spectators and volunteers, is an enemy of all of us.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

 

Explosions hitting 4 hours into the race? That’s when the people on the course aren’t elite athletes, they’re moms, dads, people like you.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

Thinking of every little kid who sat along the sidelines of a marathon offering an open hand for me to slap. Heartsick for Boston.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

 

God bless the first responders. We didn’t need another reminder of the selfless devotion they bring to the job, but sadly, today, we got it.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013

Hearing an event like the #BostonMarathon described as a “soft target” just enrages me and hurts me so deeply.

— Mark Joyella (@standupkid) April 15, 2013