One of my treasured memories is a great weekend Jawa Girl and I spent in Boston shortly before moving back to Cincinnati in 2007. We walked the Freedom Trail, had some great food and shopping at Quincy Market, enjoyed some pastries from the North End, and watched everyone celebrate a Red Sox no-hitter. It’s a great city with a lot to offer. We have good friends who grew up there, and good friends who live close by. And what a rich musical and academic history!

So yeah, the events of yesterday hurt.

I am not going to hazard a guess as to who was responsible (though you’d better believe I have some ideas). Our first priority now must be to bind the wounds of the injured, soothe the souls of the hurting, and memorialize those who were killed. Justice will come, and it will roll down like a mighty river, but it will come properly. We must not lash out blindly. We did that once, and it didn’t work.

Rather, let us devote our energies to love. Love beats hate every time. Let us love one another. As W. H. Auden said in “September 1, 1939,” we must love one another or die.

WF