“No More Hurting People. Peace.”

Several hundred people gathered on Boston Common yesterday evening, lighting candles for an impromtu vigil and memorial. They remembered the bombing victims–three dead and over 170 injured–and also celebrated the runners, spectators, police, medical personnel, and citizens of every sort who have offered aid, since the moment of the blast. There was some singing, some prayer, many tears, and a lot of quiet. This expressed, I think, the core reaction so far in Boston: sadness and abiding faith that simple human goodness will prevail. There is anger too, but the sadness and the faith in the good are much, much greater.

I walked past the make-shift memorial this afternoon and took a few pictures. The words from Martin Richard, the murdered eight-year old boy, are impossibly poignant. “No more hurting people. Peace.”

I think this little maxim from a little boy will long outlast this tragedy. I’m not a religious sort, but it’s impossible not to hear the Bible: “Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have perfected praise.”