A Lesson from a tough week in Boston: Good will always prevail

This frightening week in Boston started with bombings at the Boston Marathon. There was a fatal shooting at MIT last night, and (at the time of writing this post) there is an ongoing manhunt for a suspect who has been fleeing from the police after a shooting at 102 Garden Street (really close to my undergraduate dorm) and throwing out grenades from his hijacked car.   Last night around midnight, police urged Cambridge and Boston residents to stay indoors. My friends and I went to sleep with police sirens going on for hours. We’re under citywide lockdown right now, but I snuck out for a minute and this is what the Harvard Square T-Stop looked like

For those who are unfamiliar with the significance of the Boston Marathon, it’s an annual event in April that draws over half a million people in from across the United States and around the world. It’s been held since 1897 and is the world’s oldest marathon.  Spectators, friends, family, doctors, students, and volunteers come out to support the runners in this annual marathon that’s held on Patriots’ Day, the third Monday of April.  Around 3PM on Monday, two bombs went off close to the finish line, killing 3 people and severely injuring close to 200 people. The youngest was 8-year-old Martin Richard. Other victims were Lingzi Lu, 23, and Krystle Campbell, 29.

As most of you did, I combed through online news, tweets, and commentaries that predicted the cowards’ motives, backgrounds, and political goals. This week’s tragedies sparked ongoing discussions centered on definitions of terrorism, cowardice, failing morality of the United States, and even immigration.

In the midst of all these conversations, I read numerous stories about the kindness that people showed towards Bostonians, some of which I want to highlight here.  The lesson I learned from this week’s tragedies is: good will always prevail. Human beings are innately good, altruistic creatures, and good will always overpower the bad. The heart of a runner in Boston beats exactly in the same way as the heart of a runner in Belgrade does (see photo below of a Serbian runner).  Mothers who lose their children to bombings in Boston experience the same gut-wrenching pain that Afghani mothers who experience the same loss do.  The blood of a stranger can save another stranger’s life. We’re all the same.

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And messages of love from  friends around the world:

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(Beth Murphy/Principle Pictures)
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(Beth Murphy/Principle Pictures)
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(Beth Murphy/Principle Pictures)
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(Beth Murphy/Principle Pictures)
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(Beth Murphy/Principle Pictures)
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(Beth Murphy/Principle Pictures)

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