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Terror At The Finish Line


People comfort each other after a bombing at the Boston Marathon, April 16, 2013.
People comfort each other after a bombing at the Boston Marathon, April 16, 2013.

The people of Boston and the U.S. will pull together, take care of each other and move forward.

Federal investigators and local police have intensified their search for the planner or planners of the deadly bomb attack on runners and spectators at this year’s Boston Marathon.

Terror At The Finish Line
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Three people were killed and scores more maimed or injured by twin blasts minutes apart near the finish line in the city’s central business district. President Barack Obama in remarks following the attack called it a tragedy, but other government officials say it is being treated as a terrorist strike.

Thousands were affected by the bombings, seemingly timed to target the huge crowds that flocked to Boston for the race. Held annually since 1897 to help mark the local Patriot’s Day holiday and the start of spring, the marathon is one of the sport’s premier events, attracting runners and spectators from around the world.

Indeed, this year’s winner of the men’s contest hails from Ethiopia and on the women’s side the champion was a Kenyan. Sadly, their victories are now overshadowed by the attack, lost in the swirling smoke and debris strewn along Boylston Street.

There is no known motive for the attack, as yet no suspect and few answers to how such a thing could happen. What is clear, though, is that a senseless act of violence against innocent men, women and children has again shown that our country is as vulnerable to such events as are others around the world.

Just this week, 19 people were killed and dozens more wounded when two car bombs detonated outside the law courts in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. At least 31 have died and more than 200 were injured in a series of early morning explosions in cities across Iraq.

In this, then, there is a kind of solidarity of suffering, one that gives Americans a better understanding of the threats faced by other peoples of the world. And like those in Mogadishu, Baghdad, Mumbai and other cities victimized like this, the people of Boston and the U.S. will pull together, take care of each other and move forward.
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