04.15.13
Monday was a numb day in our household, as it was for most Americans. Stephanie was supposed to have run the Iron Girl half marathon this past Sunday, but was forced to skip it when a stomach bug reared its ugly head on Friday morning. She was so disappointed and I was upset for her, but it was the right thing to do. Monday morning came with Kyle waking up with a fever which resulted in a trip to the doctor’s office and he and I settling in on the couch for a day of Disney movies! Luckily I had plenty of work to do in the office that I was able to do from home, so it wasn’t a wasted day at all. I was actually excited to watch the live stream of the Boston Marathon for a change instead of catching the clips later in the evening.
Not only was Monday Tax Day in the USA, it also marked the anniversary of the Titanic sinking, the day President Lincoln died after being shot the evening before in Ford’s Theater, and it was my 42nd Birthday. So what else could go wrong? Sadly, we all watched as the bombs began to explode just over 4 hours into the Boston Marathon. If she could, I know the Statue of Liberty would have bowed her head in New York Harbor and cried; for once again a cowardly terrorist hurt and killed the innocent on our soil.
Tragedies like this hit me differently than most folks. With twenty years in law enforcement, like most cops, we build up a force field to cope with this kind of event differently than normal people. We have to – or we’d all be in the funny farm sedated and restrained. Cops see and hear the absolute worst things you can imagine. Our dreams at night are painted in hell and we all have something that haunts us from the streets – I know I do. So when stuff like this happens, it saddens me that the world my son is growing up in is not as nice as I’d like it to be, but I just can’t muster the fear and tears like that of my fellow Americans. Cops know what I am talking about. Our internal mechanisms that are there to preserve our psyche forces us to look past the bad and go right into an investigative mode, and be glad the law enforcement officers in Massachusetts are cut from the same pattern as the rest of us cops!
In less than 3 days, the master minds at the FBI sifted through thousands upon thousands of still shots from security cameras and were able to locate two needles in a hay stack. Sadly, as I write this, their work lead to a colleague being killed, but we now know who is responsible for this heinous act. Having worked in this business long enough, I can tell you, they have done a phenomenal job in such a short amount of time. Between Kyle’s fever, a quick business trip, and sifting through the internet non-stop looking at the Boston news and putting my cop mind to work, I have neglected my training a little this week. But, like this resilient country of ours and the wonderful city of Boston, a place Stephanie and I call our second home at times, I will run again …. and swim …. and bike …… tomorrow!
Memorial at the site of the Boston Marathon Finish Line