The recent bombings in Boston have struck closer to home than I first thought possible. The community in which I was raised and the high school which I attended have been the epicenter of one of the worst moments in the history of Massachusetts and indeed the United States.

When I was a kid, I and my fellow Cantabrigians took great pride in the diversity of our city and our high school in particular. This was a school that had kids from practically everywhere and yet, typical teen bullshit notwithstanding, people got along and took pride in that fact. Now Cambridge and Cambridge Rindge and Latin are momentarily shattered, emotionally and in respects physically too. Multiple people linked to the high school have suffered serious and grave injuries. For what?

Two graduates with a profoundly mistaken faith in the wisdom of violence have brought our city indescribable grief. And yet if there is any place in America that can rise to this challenge, to reject the xenophobic impulse, to embrace principles of unity in diversity it is precisely Cambridge and, more specifically, our beloved CRLS.

I’ll have more to say later. Still very much in pain. Sad. Dazed. But still breathing.

JL