Cambridge Civic Journal Forum

April 16, 2013 – I led an 8-mile AMC Local Walk yesterday from the Forest Hills T station to Heartbreak Hill where we then watched the Marathon runners before heading back into Boston. After a walk from the Boston College area to the Reservoir stop on the Green Line, several of us were packed into a trolley heading toward Park Street. We never arrived. We were approximately under the Copley Square station when the bombs exploded above us. I didn’t hear them, but when we were evacuated at Arlington Street you could tell that something was extremely wrong. When we got out into the street there were emergency vehicles racing from everywhere. At first nobody knew what was happening. When word started to spread that there had been a bombing, it was accompanied by word that it had been a diversion and that other bombings might follow. There was a lot of worry in the faces of most people. Thankfully, no other bombs followed.

Though I was pretty tired after walking perhaps 9 miles already, I had to then hike over to the Charles/MGH station to get back to Cambridge. Near MGH you could see hospital staff running toward MGH as the ambulances were arriving. I was practically the only one not staring into a cell phone or texting messages to people. It was surreal. From Central Square, yet more walking to get home and even in Cambridge you could see and hear the emergency vehicles racing toward Boston and toward suspicious sites in Cambridge. Like everyone else, watching the TV was like watching a horror movie.

Today I’m reading messages from politicians trying to get in air time. Spare me. Like millions of people in this area, I don’t want to hear any more messages from politicians expressing concern. I don’t want to hear about peace vigils or about why we should not give in to fear. Any fear passed quickly for most people. I want only that justice be done. Any person or group of people who would do such a thing should be treated like a disease and removed from the civilized world. Any philosophy or ideology espoused by such people should be damned. – Robert Winters