So I think Boston passed the test. [View all]

[MannyGoldstein]

It's been a stressful week here.

The Boston Marathon has always been classic Boston to me - world-class, joyous, and relaxed. We usually walk a few blocks to watch the runners (and wheelers) pass by on Heartbreak Hill, there's usually a nice throng cheering and handing out water. Very few police, almost no supervision. People just trust each other to behave, and we do - until Monday's tragedy.

In Boston? On Boylston Street? That doesn't happen around here. It just doesn't.

An awful act had killed and maimed, and may have killed or maimed our marathon for good. And we were left with savages on the loose.

I came home from an event last night and found out about the shooting at MIT. In Cambridge? At the Stata Center? That doesn't happen around here. It just doesn't. Smelled like it might be related to the other thing that never happens around here.

I woke up a little past five this morning, pulled out my iPad, and... incredible. A firefight a mile or so from our house. Bombs, guns, deaths, fugitives. SWAT teams, military, painstaking house-to-house search. Incredible photos: Hey! That's the mall we go to! Hey! That's my barber shop! I was worried.

But our Commonwealth and our towns did the right thing. The voluntary lockdown order was a dramatic step, but probably the best way to go. Between shoe leather and technology, they got the guy. Like so many things that government does in Massachusetts, it worked well.

I was at another event tonight, down by MIT as it happens, and with a clutch of techies from out of town. As the police closed in on the murderer, one of the out-of-town techies glanced up from his smart phone and addressed the group:

"They found him - they say they'll be killing him in five minutes".

"Killing him?"

"Well, they say they're sending a robot in five minutes, but of course they'll kill him for some reason or another."

"I'm a local. In my experience, our cops don't kill people unless they really have to."

And our law enforcers did not disappoint. As angry and tired as they were, they did the right thing. Some might cheer for battlefield justice, but I'm a big believer in laws. Laws that even cops and US presidents must obey. If we don't obey laws, civilization goes away.

In any case, we're through it. And I feel damned good that I can look back and be proud of the people I live with in our Commonwealth.

Peace to us all.