Explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line

[Smile_Awhile]

I too saw those articles- but they were from the NY Post. In my opinion, hardly a reliable source.

[pshsx1]

Originally Posted by lovespink88

They have gone back and now said that it was not connected.

Thanks for confirmation. I've been trying to follow the story pretty closely all day and didn't think I missed anything.

[ASTalumna06]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/16/us/bos...led/index.html

An article about the 8-year-old who died. He was there to watch his father race.

His mother has had surgery on her brain and his sister lost her leg. My thoughts go out to the family.

[Psi U MC Vito]

Are the Boston area Gcers ok?

[AOII Angel]

They've searched an apartment.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...t-developments

ETA: This story from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/bos...ion/index.html

The Saudi national returns. Apparently he is not in "custody" and isn't a "suspect" but they searched his home which he consented to.

[LaneSig]

MIT's Phi Kappa Theta chapter stepped up to help. If you read down, you'll see pictures of the members. According to the article, their chapter house is near where the explosions occured.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rebeccaellio...-boston-attack

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

Are the Boston area Gcers ok?

My thought also.

[carnation]

One GCer, alum, was there but is okay!

[FSUZeta]

Originally Posted by LaneSig

MIT's Phi Kappa Theta chapter stepped up to help. If you read down, you'll see pictures of the members. According to the article, their chapter house is near where the explosions occured.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rebeccaellio...-boston-attack

I just saw this on my facebook and was going to post. Thanks LaneSig and thanks to the MIT Phi Kappa Theta chapter as well as all the others who helped out.

[DaffyKD]

I flew out to Boston on Wednesday night to spend a few days with my daughter and her boyfriend. Walked right by the explosion spot on Saturday. Marathon ran directly in front of her apartment about 2 miles from the end of the race. I flew out home on Sunday night while my best friend's niece and her kids were at the airport at the time of the explosion.

My daughter and her boyfriend were both at work and are both safe. I am still shaking. All weekend there was a high presence of security. Boston did everything in their power to keep everyone safe, from what I was able to see.

DaffyKD

[LaneSig]

The little boy who was killed, Martin Richard, was the son of a Sigma Tau Gamma alumni.

http://www.sigmataugamma.org/latest-...ichards-family

[Ch2tf]

Originally Posted by NinjaPoodle

My thought also.

I'm ok. I'm not in contact with any of the other Boston GCers though

[maconmagnolia]

Sending thoughts and prayers to all of those affected. What an awful tragedy.

I kept seeing a photo on Facebook, of a young girl who was running with the caption, "This eight year old girl was running for the victims of the Newtown shooting, and was killed during the Boston explosions." The photo is fake, as the only child who died in the explosions was an 8 year old boy who was not a runner. I can't imagine why someone would make that up!

[alum]

Originally Posted by carnation

One GCer, alum, was there but is okay!

Actually I wasn't there but my daughter was almost. She has qualified to run the 2014 event but this year she was going to jump in at the beginning of Heartbreak Hill to pace a fellow runner. I called her when I heard the news and she was sounding worried so I thought she was at the site. She had no idea what was going on downtown. Fortunately she was worried because she couldn't find her friend and was afraid she had dropped due to injury.

Everyone in her running club was okay and finished before the explosions. but she reminded me yesterday that it was on Patriot's Day 6 years ago when the VA Tech shootings occurred and she lost a former hs teammate.

[lovespink88]

Originally Posted by maconmagnolia

I kept seeing a photo on Facebook, of a young girl who was running with the caption, "This eight year old girl was running for the victims of the Newtown shooting, and was killed during the Boston explosions." The photo is fake, as the only child who died in the explosions was an 8 year old boy who was not a runner. I can't imagine why someone would make that up!

Me too, and it's stuff like this that drive me absolutely crazy about social media.

It's hard to describe it, but when people "share" a picture like this during a tragedy, I feel like they're basically attention whoring. "Look at me, I care about this issue too so I'm going to make it my profile picture or share it even though I don't know anything about what it means!" It just comes off as so selfish and fake to me. (I know I posted about this in another thread, but this bothered me with the red equality sign too. Changing your picture does not make you an activist.)

I mean, I'm not saying you CAN'T show support through social media, but there has GOT to be a better way than mindlessly passing something along that you saw. Be respectful about it! Stuff like this is just soooo over the top.

In my opinion.

Off my soapbox now...and any use of "you" in the above should be interpreted as a hypothetical you.