Episode CXVI: Close to Home

As I type this post, we are holed up at home due to a state advisory that no one in Cambridge or surrounding towns leave their houses. Incidentally, this is the third time in under a year that we have been under a local/state-enforced travel ban (the other two were weather-related).

Anyhow, here I am in Cambridge, a bastion of modern liberalism, intellectualism and peacenik-ism, and we're in the middle of a massive robbery/shootout/car-chase/manhunt that has now been going on for nearly a day.

Turns out a number of the locations relevant to the ongoing manhunt (as well as the marathon bombings) are surprisingly close to home for my wife and I. Here's a brief rundown (based on circulating news reports):

First off, the house that the two suspects were living in (the one in which a controlled detonation should be going off shortly) was only a handful of blocks from our condo, located along a route that I fairly often traverse.

[The blurry street sign marks the street I often travel]

The younger of the two suspects had gone to Cambridge Rindge and Latin school (a public high school) which has a lovely little campus, one which I regularly bike through on my commute to Harvard. (Incidentally, a handful of famous people, including Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, E.E. Cummings and Patrick Ewing are all alumni of this school.)

[The lovely little garden path in the foreground leads to the excellent Cambridge Public Library]

The older of the two suspects had gone to Bunker Hill Community College, which my wife and I have visited, and at which a fair amount of the movie Good Will Hunting took place (if you would like to see a clip of Robin Williams teaching at said school, go here.)

The current focus of attention is now well to the west in Watertown, a good 5 miles away (we do have some friends who live in Watertown), though we still hear an occasional helicopter or a siren zooming by. For now, we wait. Sounds like this thing could go on for hours or days...

So what's the take home message so far? To me, it's that this crazy stuff can happen anywhere. I am in one of the most technologically, intellectually, socially, and economically advanced cities in the world, but that is not sufficient protection from the danger of local terrorists/sadists/murderers, and to hope otherwise would be to underestimate evil's mighty power.