Boston is my city. I\u2019ve lived all my life within an easy half hour drive to the Hub. Except at rush hour, when it\u2019s an easy two or three hour drive.\u00a0 I have close family living in the city proper. All my life, going \u201cinto town\u201d meant Boston. I still say \u201chahbah\u201d for \u201charbor.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve spent the last thirteen years working on the ambulance in Boston\u2019s northern suburbs. EMS being what it is, I have friends and co-workers and former partners working at every service and hospital inside of Route 128.<\/p>\n
The vents of April 15th hit a lot of people close to me very hard \u2013excuse me –hahd, and I just want to say a few things.<\/p>\n
As frustrating as it is, there\u2019s a lot we can\u2019t do right now, a lot we shouldn\u2019t do right now, and only one thing we should.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t change what happened. We can\u2019t erase the fact that on a beautiful day, when the city was enjoying the annual celebration that is the marathon, bombs tore through the crowd, killing and maiming people who wanted nothing more than to share in the camaraderie of the event. There is no cause, no goal that can excuse that.<\/p>\n
Most of us can\u2019t do much right now to prepare for this kind of thing, or prevent the next time or punish those who carried this out. There are people working on it, and when they know more, we will be better able to act. As a paramedic, I\u2019m sure our procedures will be updated, and when they are, I\u2019ll make adjustments.<\/p>\n
What we should not do is speculate. Let\u2019s not scapegoat foreign terrorists or the militia movements or anyone else just yet. Better to be uncertain now and right tomorrow than certain and wrong today.<\/p>\n
The one thing we can do, must do, is support and respect one another in our time of shared loss.\u00a0 Don\u2019t post graphic photos. Don\u2019t belittle anybody\u2019s urges to pray or hope or provide comfort, even if you disagree with their beliefs. Don\u2019t call for revenge. In time, we can demand justice. Don\u2019t utter the words \u201cfalse flag\u201d or \u201cconspiracy\u201dwithin striking distance of me.<\/p>\n
Just be kind. Be a friend. Hug your kids and your family, buy your coworker a cup of coffee, let those close to you know that you care, because there may not be another chance.<\/p>\n
And, Boston, remember: Don\u2019t be a peckahhead.\u00a0 Just be wicked pissah to each othah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boston is my city. I\u2019ve lived all my life within an easy half hour drive to the Hub. Except at rush hour, when it\u2019s an easy two or three hour drive.\u00a0 I have close family living in the city proper. All my life, going \u201cinto town\u201d meant Boston. I still say \u201chahbah\u201d for \u201charbor.\u201d I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,33,14,6,12,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ems","category-mr-sunshine","category-politics","category-society","category-tin-foil-hats","category-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/62"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}