PAX Centurion - Special Edition 2013

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Special Boston Marathon Bombing Issue 2013 • Page 5 W ith the exception of a few political events, I cannot recall many instances of printing a special edition of the Pax over the last 30 years. But the events of April 15 th , 2013 and the ensuing days resulting in the apprehension of the criminal terrorists warrants some sort of immediate commemoration. When directed by President Nee to produce a special issue to commemorate this horrific, singular event, we decided that putting an honest face on the events of April 15 th would best honor the sacrifice of our members and of those killed, maimed and injured. Without showing the goriest of photos (and there are many which are truly stomach-turning), we wanted to somehow capture in photographs and stories the horror of what many of our members experienced that day. To achieve that goal, there are no “glad-handing” photos, pictures of politicians and administrators posing for photos, or anything that does not truly evoke a remembrance of the reality of that day. The photos express what happens when terrorist savages decide they are going to target innocent children and civilians to glorify some warped, twisted ideology that has its origins in the twelfth century and desires to propel us back to the dark ages. There will be time for critique and criticism in future From the PAX Editor: James Carnell issues of the Pax. This is not the issue to achieve those goals. Undoubtedly, there were mistakes and omissions made over that terrible week. Whether you can actually “plan” adequately for such horrific events is another question. As we all know, today’s thanks and praise from a grateful public and fawning politicians desiring a photo-op won’t mean a hill of beans the next time we pull somebody over for a traffic violation, arrest their kid at a wild party, or become embroiled in a contract dispute. It’s simply the nature of the beast; a fickle public’s memories fade quickly, and yesterday’s heroes don’t win today’s ballgames. This issue is meant to be a keepsake for each member to show to their children or grandchildren. A sincere thank you to assistant Pax editor Mark Bruno (C-6) for all of his hard work and to the Herald’s Joe Fitzgerald and the Globe’s Kevin Cullen for giving us permission to re-print their excellent articles which may have been missed by many due to the chaotic nature of the past few weeks. I’m not a religious man, but as this issue will be distributed during the middle of May (National Police Memorial Week), I thought the words carved into the granite walls of the National Police Memorial inWashington, D.C. were apropos: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion.” (Proverbs 28-1)