There are few events in life that one can recall exactly what they were doing when the tragedy happened to unfold.
One event in our life was when the planes flew into the World Trade Center Buildings on that Tuesday morning in 2011.
We were just one in a small group of residents at Peter Palladino’s City Hall Variety on Broadway, Revere, getting our morning coffee. The television news was interrupted to show live coverage of one tower with smoke pouring out, and then from nowhere a second plane flew into the second tower.
The crash and then the collapse of the towers is a scene that we will never forget.
Since that morning, we have talked to both survivors from the towers as well as the family members whose sons or daughters, fathers and mothers including Everett’s James and Mary Trentini never survived. The shock has never worn off.
However, time does soften the loss of loved ones to such an inhumane act.
That was until, we in the Boston area experienced another cowardly and despicable act when the Tsarnaev brothers or as they became known as Marathon Bombers, set off two bombs that killed four innocent people, and left hundreds with permanent and debilitating injuries. For some, their children, or family members just barely escaped injury on that Monday in 2013 by being a few walking minutes away from the bombs when they went off.
The list of cowardly acts that claim innocent lives in this world that we have witnessed could go on.
On Monday, community residents and leaders came together again to remember the 9/11 victims and their families. Every time, the event is covered by the news, we are reminded of the flowing lines:
Blow thou cold winter wind blow,
Thy cut is not so unkind,
As man’s ingratitude towards man.
Shaking our heads at events like Monday’s, we just wonder what kind of world we have willed to our children.