When Tragedy Strikes

Tragedy struck Monday afternoon when two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 170.

All of our gut reactions to the marathon bombings must inevitably be a mixture of confusion, fear, and anger.  Confusion because the nation has yet to learn who is responsible for what President Obama Monday called an “act of terrorism” and because it is impossible to fathom what would motivate such a hateful act. Fear because we cannot rule out the possibility that this type of violence could happen again when we are least expecting it.  And anger because we cannot stomach the senseless slaughter of innocents, including an eight-year-old child.

Americans are right to be confused, afraid, and angry, and we are right to want to identify those behind the bombings and bring them to justice.  We must not, however, lose sight of the ways in which Monday’s evil brought out the good in so many.

Onlookers at the Boston Marathon rushed not away from the carnage but toward it to help the fallen. Marathon participants continued running past the finish line to Massachusetts General Hospital, where they donated blood to those wounded. Boston residents opened their homes to runners and victims’ family members who had no place to stay after the chaos. Google launched a person finder to aid people in locating their loved ones, and The Crimson compiled a list of names of Harvard affiliates confirmed safe.

Tuesday night, members of the Harvard community gathered in a candlelight vigil to mourn, reflect, and offer each other support. This, along with the overwhelming kindness displayed in response to Monday’s attacks, shows that people across the Harvard campus and across the United States at large understand the need to come together and lean on each other in troubling times. Amid daily academic competition at school and partisan bickering nationwide, it is too often that we lose sight of this imperative to understand and care for each other, regardless of our differences.

When tragedy strikes, we almost lose ourselves in horror and grief. Our faith in the world suffers a near-shattering blow. But when tragedy strikes, we also strike back. We straighten up, square our shoulders, and set out to counter the awful with the positive.  We meet hurt and despair with help and hope.

Monday’s events showcased the worst side of humanity, and yet they also showcased the best. Every year at the Boston Marathon, men and women run 26.2 miles, sweat dripping down their faces, pain shooting through their chests, their bodies overcoming whatever physical pain and mental doubts threaten to hold them back—whether it takes them two hours and three minutes to reach the finish line, or four hours and nine.

Like these indomitable athletes, we, too, will overcome.