A lot has transpired in the two weeks that have passed since the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 14, 2013.  The cowardly, destructive intent of terrorism made it through the fire walls of our national security and tried, once again, to cause fear and panic among us.  Once again, it has failed.  The people of Boston showed the world that Americans do not scare easily.  That freedom will not be cowed by the cowardly forces of terror.

At the moment of the bombings, in the midst of the smoke, the screams of horror and pain, the terrible wounds and the blood, people immediately ran to the chaos, not away.  People who did not know each other, who were aware that, since two bombs had gone off within seconds of each other, there could be more waiting to go off, ran to the wounded anyway and began doing what was necessary to give aid and comfort to the wounded.  They were ordinary folks and first responders, doctors and nurses, who moments before were simply enjoying the fun and accomplishment associated with the grueling, athletic competition of a marathon.  

As always, in acts of terror like this, it is the innocent who are targeted, not those who are prepared to fight the enemy, face to face, mano a mano.  This is because terrorists are, at their very core, cowards.  In Boston those who died were an eight year old boy, and two young women, one of whom was a visiting grad student from China.  Many of those who were terribly injured, who lost legs, who received traumatic brain injuries, etc. were also women, but every one of the injured were non-combatants.  We know only too well, that terrorists defy established, universal moral codes, and observe no international laws against the harm of civilian non-combatants.  In fact they target the innocent directly.  Their actions as a result, are inherently evil.  Even more so when they are done in the name of "religion."

All of that aside, one of the great stories to come out of this event, reveals the quality and character of our own military veterans in contrast to the nature and actions of terrorists.  Two Marines, who had suffered life-changing single and multiple amputation injuries, stepped forward this past week, on their own initiative, to offer comfort, encouragement and hope to those who now shared the same kind of injuries as the result of those homemade IED's used by the Tsarnaev brothers.   

Those two Marines visited the wounded of the Patriots Day bombings to show the injured men and women (some 17 of whom are now amputees like these two Marines) by their words of comfort, their optimism, and by their presence, that though their lives had changed forever, there is every reason to look forward to recovering and moving on with happy and useful lives, despite their devastating injuries.  They are living proof of that, for they "walked" into those hospital rooms, standing tall, wearing their prostheses.  You see, those two Marines know, exactly, what these people are going through right now, both physically and psychologically, and what they will go through over the next months and years of their lives.  I have not named the two Marines because, for me, they represent all of our wounded warriors who are willing to offer such aid and comfort to these newly wounded civilians.

Nobody asked these two wounded veterans to come forth to do this.  They did it because they knew it was what they must do for those who, as a result of mindless, hateful and cowardly terrorism, had now entered their fraternity.  They knew that they had something positive and hopeful to offer to those who had suffered their wounds, not in the usual realm of the battlefield, but on a city street in Boston, MA.

Those two veteran Marines showed the quality of their character in this instantaneous and voluntary response to the wounded in Boston.   They offer to us, and to the victims of that act, an example of noble humanity, in stark contrast to the ignoble inhumanity of the terrorists.  Their courage, their dedication to the good of others and their country, shines a powerful light on to the dark, selfish madness and cowardice of the terrorists.  

The people of Boston, the first responders, the police and the federal agencies who tracked down the two terrorists within 5 short days, showed the world that we will not be cowed by these terrorists.  Our love of freedom runs too deep to be intimidated by those who follow the dark, tyrannical ways of terror.   

The secretive and cowardly forces of terror may very well strike again, but in the long run, we can have confidence that freedom will prevail.   Terror will finally succumb for it has the opposite of life and liberty at its core.  It fights out of the hatred of a dead ideology.   Want proof?  Look at the stark difference between the two hate filled brothers who did this and the two wounded Marines who came forward, unbowed by their wounds, out of love and concern for the innocent, and newly wounded.   That's why, in the end, goodness will remain standing and evil will be blown before the winds of history like so much lifeless sand in an empty desert.

"A real soldier does not fight because he has something that he hates in front of him.  He fights because he has something that he loves behind his back." (G.K. Chesterton)   These two Marines model the character of a "real" soldiers, sailors, airmen, Coast Guardsmen or Marines, in the sense that Chesterton speaks of in the above quote.  Terrorists are just terrorists.