Sunday, April 21, 2013

Boston: The Polis Unbowed, Undaunted


The "Sacred Cod" That Hangs in the House of Representatives in the Massachusetts State House, in Boston

This week's horror in Boston momentarily stilled our tongue and bruised our carapace, so the Lobster & Canary will be brief.

One thought only: 

The bombs went off right on the doorstep of Old South Church, whose congregation has played a mighty role in the forming of American liberty.  Samuel Sewall was a member, he who wrote the first abolitionist tract, and so was Phyllis Wheatley, and Benjamin Franklin's family. 

The bombs exploded across from the Boston Public Library, the first municipal library in this country, the first to allow patrons to borrow books (and not simply read them on the premises).

The bombs scorched Copley Square and Boylston Street...tore at the heart of the modern plaza, the core of the polis...and the citizens and all good members of civil society responded with swift, selfless love for their fellows, for the values heart-drawn from the deep well of our shared civitas, our commonwealth, our city on a hill. 

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