Exemplification Essay: The Bombing Of The Boston Marathon

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh set off a truck bomb outside of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The attack under McVeigh left 168 people dead and more than 650 people injured. More than 300 buildings surrounding the area were damaged due to the explosion. “Until September 11, 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing was the worst terrorist attack to take place on U.S. soil” (http://www.history.com/topics/oklahoma-city-bombing). This bombing was a major eye opener to the US.

Statistically, on average, there have been eleven thousand, seven hundred and ninety-seven acts of terrorism, the category which the Boston Marathon

On April 19th 1995 the worst terrorist attack on US soil took place in the heartland of America. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was targeted and almost completely blown to pieces by one enormous homemade bomb. The unthinkable had happened at the beginning of an average day at the office. This day would be remembered for the rest of America's history, unlike any other day, as a blatant attack on the United States government.

The Oklahoma Bombing was one of the most disastrous, overwhelming attacks in America’s history. One horrible man went through with this plan to destroy many people’s lives just because of his own paranoia. He specifically chose his target to cause an uproar to draw attention to himself and his “accomplishment.” He did all this and, as a result, America grieved together and grew together to hate a common enemy.

I learned quite a bit about the psychological impact of the Boston Marathon Bombing. After researching the effects, I realized how much trauma these innocent people went through during a moment that was supposed to be joyous. People that were healthy and filled with life were either severely injured or had there life taken away by a senseless act. Some of the injured victims will never be able to walk again, others, never able to see their loved ones again. Martin Richard, an 8-year old boy whose life was taken during the attack, will never get to see his family one more time. The amount of grief the Tsarnev brothers caused can never be taken back and it has left a psychological effect on the viewers and the victims – runners, adults and children.

On April 19, 1995 the world was thrown into shock. Terrorism was not a thing in the United States. It was even more of a shock to find out this terrorist was a resident of the United States. Not only did this tragedy effect the hundreds of people inside the Oklahoma City Murrah building, it also affected billions of rescue workers, families, and loved ones. All the different groups of people affected by this bomb copped in very different ways.

April 15, 2013 hundreds of innocent Americans were traumatized forever. The 117th annual Boston Marathon was hit with an act of terrorism. Two-hundred-sixty people lost their legs while three people lost their lives. On this day Americans realized how important security is. One thousand federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel sat down and watched surveillance footage for hours tracking the terrorist that caused the Boston Bombing to occur. April 18, 2013 the FBI released footage and images of suspects whose identity was once unknown to gain more knowledge. Due to security footage the men who committed the monstrous act were brought to justice. Without the public surveillance these terrorist would have never been found. (Boston Marathon Bombings.History.com Staff.History.com.2014.Boston Marathon Bombings.)

The article of my choosing that express American spirit is the Boston Marathon Bombings and how the city of Boston came together after a terrible terrorist act. Boston Stronger is written by David Ortiz Boston Red Sox Designated hitter.The Boston Red sox and David ortiz had a major part in helping the city come together as one.The Red sox won the world series in october six months after the bombing. David expressed that something like this should never happen especially on a day that represents sports so well. David had trouble understanding why the terrorists choose this event where people run for such good causes like raising money for cancer . Ortiz came was born in the Dominican republic and came here for baseball so he didn't know to much

The day was absolutely beautiful, sunny with decent temps which made for perfect running condition for the runners during the 117th Boston Marathon, and event held on Patriot’s day to commemorate the battle of Lexington and Concord that had started the Revolutionary War in 1775. 23,000 runners lined up at the starting line in the city of Hopkinton, the first wave of runners started at 9:32. At approximately 2:49 p.m. is when 2 bombs went off, at least 5,600 people still racing towards the finish line at the time of the explosion (History).

In American history, many great events happened. In the same thought there have also been bad ones. The Boston Marathon Bombing. On April 15, 2013, two bombs were placed and exploded. They killed 3 people and injured at least 264. Yet, even if there was so much destruction, there was also great things to come out of it. Americans showed that willpower, fighting for justice, and aiding other people is part of our identity

On the covers of newspapers and on the screens of many, the story of the Boston marathon hits the ground. Twenty six thousand eight hundred thirty nine people from all over the world came to run in this awe-inspiring marathon. Until the tragedy strikes right in their faces. The explosions, injuring scores of people, effected the lives of innocent civilians. Cheers were replaced with screams, sirens, and the first responders providing aide to the citizens. This was a brutal event just like the one on September 11, 2001. Instead of using seclusion towards political and economical reasons for events, the mass medias perceptive towards incidents involving the religion Islam has created the stereotypical thought in society in which we live in today.

Later, the government changed the bombing theory and insisted that McVeigh was the sole mastermind behind the attack and that no other person other than Nichols who had been involved (Vohryzek et al, 2001). The FBI provided bogus investigation documents to prove their case, but realistically, McVeigh and Nichols were not in capacity to build such a huge fertilizer bomb due to lack of trainings in explosives. Thus, the law enforcement agencies and the federal government lacked evidence in their response to contain these attacks. Instead, they acted in a way to prove their superiority and seriousness to contain terror attacks, thus leading to deaths of innocent

The Boston Marathon bombing was a shocking and devastating event in the history of the United States. In the middle of what was supposed to be a very happy and cheerful event, three people lost their lives and 264 others were injured when two pressure cooker bombs went off near the finish line. Even though this was a truly horrific event, the initial response of the Boston Police Department to the explosions was incredible. Within minutes, additional Emergency Medical Service teams and the Boston Fire Department were rushing to the scene, hotels were evacuated, and police closed down a 15 block area around the blast site. The remaining runners were also redirected to a different area away from the explosion. It was truly impressive to see how well prepared everybody was in the case of an

On November 13th, 2013, terrorists attacked the Boston marathon, killing three and wounding more than 250. This attack wasn’t fatal, but it definitely caused some chaos. In a country so strong and running on pride, we wouldn’t let this act of hate scare us like it had twelve years earlier.

“Four days later, after an intense manhunt that shut down the Boston area, police captured one of the bombing suspects, whose older brother and fellow suspect, died following a shootout with law enforcement earlier that same day”( History). Boston’s response to the marathon bombings – which saved lives, maintained order, eventually captured the lone surviving suspect, and brought a community together to heal, all in less than a week was what truly made the city “strong.”