THE COWARDS HAVE LOST AGAIN

Cowards.

Cowards hiding behind their version of a deity that is just as cowardly – that’s who the culprits of the recent bombings in Boston are.  

Cowards.

Yes, it’s personal.  It should be personal for all of us.  The intent of actions like those taken by these cowards isn’t just to kill and harm innocent people.  Instead, one of its primary purposes is to scare and divide us. Those fools want us to always look over our shoulders and look at each other with wary eyes.

Only the cowards’ actions have resulted in the exact opposite.

Rather than this young baseball season having the first place Boston Red Sox fans chiding the second place New York Yankees fans (the group I fall into), the cowardly actions of the Cowardly God’s Cowards have both sets of followers embracing one another.

“Sweet Caroline” is being sung by Yankees fans in Yankees Stadium.  After 9/11 “New York, New York” was sung by Red Sox fans in Fenway Park.  That’s called unity.

Cowards will never scare us no matter how many of us they harm or execute.  No, if anything they strengthen our resolve and bring us together with an unwavering love born from the nature of sport.

The Yankees and Red Sox will always be bitter rivals between the foul lines, and their fans will always seek the last word in reminding their opponents who the better club is.  Some of the taunts and chants will even get nasty.  Heck, it is the greatest rivalry in sports. But, when it comes to everything else outside of baseball and competition we remain family.  We are Americans who happen to share a passion for the greatest American sport.  Between the lines that passion will be channeled against each other, and outside the stadium walls it will be shared in healing and supporting one another.

I’m not so naïve as to think the brotherhood/sisterhood is restricted to our game.  One only look at the NHL contest between the Bruins and Sabres in TD Garden to know that it spans all sports.  The rendition of the National Anthem sung almost solely by the fans was more meaningful and genuine than it has ever been. 

I was in Boston on Monday to watch my son ruck march the Marathon with a group of Army ROTC cadets to raise money for the Green Beret Foundation.

In the aftermath I witnessed complete strangers comforting one another on the sidewalks of this great American city.  I saw acts of kindness between people of different ethnicity and race. 

The cowards had lost.  Boston didn’t fall.  It became better, stronger, and more lasting.

So did America

God Bless Boston, God bless this great, great nation.

   
--Steve Skinner, BYB Guest Writer
Twitter: @oswegos1

 

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