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KennedyBrothers

(70 posts)
Sat May 25, 2013, 11:50 PM May 2013

Thousands of people ran the final mile of the Boston Marathon today - Thank you

I know I'm not the only person who was moved by the sight of runners carrying four flags, three American and one Chinese, through the streets of Boston today. Some of you may remember that I work for the citizen journalism site Allvoices.com. I was so happy to see those runners that it inspired me to write a column. Part of it is excerpted below, and you can read the rest by clicking on the link.

Full column at:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/14681523-runners-complete-final-mile-of-boston-marathon-honor-bombing-victims

Once the initial shock and outrage from the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing passed, reactions varied widely.

In some circles, discussion of the horrific event and its aftermath became politicized in a vicious, reactionary way. Conservative media personality Ann Coulter even went so far as to say the widow of bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev “should be in prison for wearing a hijab.”

For fair-minded, even-headed Americans, her words had the feel of ugliness to them. We all condemned the bombing and those who carried it out, but Coulter took aim at more than just the perpetrators and whatever twisted rationale they may have had for their actions.

Some of us wondered if the after-effects of the Boston bombings could go beyond the physical and psychological damage to the victims, their families and the psyche of the nation, leading to a kind of hate-based rationale for “solutions” like the one proposed by Coulter. And if so, would that mean – at least on some level – that the terrorists had in fact “won” by undermining such deep and abiding American principles as liberty and justice for all?

Thankfully, America and the rest of the world saw the answer to those kinds of unsettling questions played out Saturday on the streets of Boston. Score one for the age-old American characteristics of determination and resilience.

Continue reading at:
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/14681523-runners-complete-final-mile-of-boston-marathon-honor-bombing-victims

To begin participating in The American Pundit political writing contest, please see the information at the end of the Allvoices column.

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Thousands of people ran the final mile of the Boston Marathon today - Thank you (Original Post) KennedyBrothers May 2013 OP
Welcome to DU, KennedyBrothers! calimary May 2013 #1
glad to be here KennedyBrothers May 2013 #2
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