Today is a difficult day, but also a day where America can stand up and prove what we are all made of.  Earlier today I was writing about the good and bad in a week of sports, while writing and posting, the good and bad of humanity was being tested.  Across baseball, we are celebrating Jackie Robinson Day, celebrating a man who endured unimaginable hatred.  A man that is arguably the greatest second baseman in baseball history, but his humanitarian efforts dwarf his baseball career.  Jackie passed at just 53 years of age, but did more in his life than most normal people could accomplish in 500 years on this planet.  Today is also Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts and Maine.  A day where New Englanders, and people from all over the world flock to Boston, enjoy early day baseball at historic Fenway Park, and then move to the finish line of the Boston Marathon, where people test their own will in running 26.2 miles in a race named after a the story of man whom in ancient Greece fell over dead after running that distance from the battle of Marathon to Athens to proclaim “we won”, a feeling that must be felt by any runner upon completion of a marathon.  Patriots’ Day is in honor of The Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first in the American Revolutionary War, a day where 13 colonies stood up for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, heck, freedom to be free.

The bombings in Boston today were horrifying, and my heart and thoughts go out to anyone whose friends or families were in anyway injured in that cowardly attack.  I was lucky.  I have several people in my life who were either in the area, or were supposed to be, but all escaped any physical harm.  All that being said, I reflect on this day, reflect on the festivities being celebrated today, and wonder what the people we celebrate today would do, and what they would say given all they stood for.  Regardless of who ends up to blame for the attacks in Boston today, be it international terrorists, domestic terrorists, or some other extremist group, we need to remember what today stands for. 

If it turns out to be a terrorist organization, domestic or international, attacking the American way, remember our founding fathers.  Remember the reason I am allowed to write this blog post, the reason you are allowed to go to the church of your choosing, the reason you are free is the American spirit terrorists are so desperately attacking. Should the attacks be some extremist group who may be racially, religiously, or some other prejudice, remember the spirit of Jackie Robinson, remember a man that did not fight back and lower himself to those actions, but a man who stayed the course, a man who didn’t let the naysayers cause him to live his life in fear, but instead lived his life and moved on, consequently changing the world.  When attacks like this occur, we need to remember the will of those before us, those who shaped the world we lived in, and push it forward, live the dream they dreamt for us, and not allow any cowardly actions prevent us from being strong, human, and most importantly, American.