Where were you when the explosions took place during the Boston Marathon?
I was in Washington DC having just completed speaking at a conference and getting ready for a full week of meetings on immigration. Like most Americans, I was devastated to hear the news and to see the TV coverage of the bombs exploding and the horrible damage that took the lives of three participants and injured hundreds more.
Chicago’s Englewood Neighborhood
Where were you when the explosions took place during the Boston Marathon?
I was in Washington DC having just completed speaking at a conference and getting ready for a full week of meetings on immigration. Like most Americans, I was devastated to hear the news and to see the TV coverage of the bombs exploding and the horrible damage that took the lives of three participants and injured hundreds more.
“Can you imagine living through a situation where there is fear to go outside, where businesses are affected to the point of closing, and where everyone feels unsafe and vulnerable?”
A couple of days later, I was rerouted to San Francisco on my way to Seattle, where I was scheduled to speak at another conference. I ended up on a hotel shuttle with two women who had just come back from running the Boston Marathon. They shared with me that they finished the race minutes before the bombs exploded, narrowly escaping injury themselves.
What followed a few days later, as the whole city of Boston was in lockdown during the manhunt of the two terrorist suspects, can only be described as surreal. The word that immediately came to mind as I was watching all of these events unfold in Boston was “vulnerability.”
Can you imagine living through a situation where there is fear to go outside, where businesses are affected to the point of closing, and where everyone feels unsafe and vulnerable?
As our hearts go out to everyone who experienced this awful ordeal, I am very conscious of the constant state of vulnerability that so many of our under-resourced communities experience almost every day as a result of drug and gang violence, unemployment, and family destabilization caused by the threat of deportation and so many other factors.
While our nation fights a war on terrorism, our neighborhoods are constantly in a battle for the safety of our children due to an increase in violence that almost makes life unbearable. This kind of vulnerability not only lasts for a few days but is an ongoing reality that residents must endure.
Maybe we will need the full attention of our nation – including the church, government, law enforcement, and every other sector of society – to recognize the critical state that our under-resourced communities are in before any significant transformation will take place.
A few days before new gun control legislation was voted down by Congress, a number of our CCDA members who are connected with the PICO National Network held an event in DC to highlight the number of individuals who have been shot and killed in our urban communities since Newtown. This was a reminder to me that while the daily loss of life due to hopelessness and violence will never get the kind of attention as the crisis in Boston and Newtown, we, as followers of Christ, must deplore and speak out against all forms of evil and violence that impact human security and flourishing, regardless of where it happens.
My prayer for the families of all the victims of the Boston bombing is the same prayer I have for every family in our world that has suffered loss due to senseless and evil expressions of violence: “I pray that the love and peace of God will bring comfort to those who have suffered loss and that the courage of Christ will fill us all to be agents of peace in our communities for the sake of the Kingdom.”
Finally, I’m so grateful for our CCDA leaders and practitioners around the nation that pray this kind of prayer for our neighbors every day.
Noel Castellanos
CEO, CCDA
