There are certain days in history where people ask, "Where were you on insert-important-day-here?". Certain days involve 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Virginia Tech Shooting, Airline 1549's water landing on the Hudson, Deepwater Horizon, Boston Marathon, President Obama's Inauguration, and now, President Trump's Inauguration.
What I have noticed from how people are reacting to President Trump's and VP Pence's Inauguration is that there is a lot dividing the country.
But it should not be that way and the new movie, Patriots Day, gives us an example of how the country should act.
I decided today to get away from social media for an hour or two because everyone was posting about the inauguration and the protest and the marches. I'm not big into politics but it was getting a little much. I thought, "Why not go see Patriots Day?" because of it's strong American based themes and it was the best choice I could have made. Now I would consider myself a patriot. I love America and coming from a very military-based family, I was taught that patriotism is very important.
Patriots Day is about the Boston Marathon Bombing and the manhunt for the bombers in the days after. It follows the Boston and Watertown Police Department, the FBI, the city of Boston, and the bombers through the whole movie.
The movie starts off by introducing Mark Wahlberg, J.K. Simmons, John Goodman and the rest of the cast just hours before the marathon. It moves to introduce the bombers and how they lived before the marathon as well. Next, the movie shows the setting up of the marathon and the marathon itself. The rest of the movie is pretty straight forward; the aftermath of the bombing, the MIT police officer being shot, the young Chinese student being kidnapped, the manhunt for the bombers, and finally the capture of the youngest bomber. The movie ended with interviews of the real-life counterparts of the cast about the bombing and how it affected Boston.
What I saw in this movie wasn't a city falling victim to a horrendous act of terrorism but rather a city coming together to deal with this act. The farthest up in the government that the movie showed was the FBI. It showed the speech from past President Obama but never on what the government said directly. It was never about "how the government handled it" but it was about how the whole city of Boston rallied together to give the FBI photos, videos, statements, and cooperation to find the bombers. This whole movie was based on how the people came together in this terrible time, not how the government did. Mark Wahlberg's character, Sergeant Tommy Saunder who is a fictional representation of multiple sergeants in Boston, constantly talks about how the city of Boston wants to catch the bombers and how this needs to stay city-based. Also, the BPD also says throughout the whole movie that they didn't just hit a marathon, they hit everyone in the whole city.
I think Governor Deval Patrick sums up the bombing and aftermath best with, "The bombers took life and limb...but they gave us [Boston] a stronger sense and common cause." I also think that Patriots Day is a great example of how the country should come together right now instead of dividing. A lot of people yesterday and today are whining about the future and what the government might do. But if we don't like what happens, we, the people, can do something about if we come together. It shouldn't be "Pro-Trump" or "Anti-Trump", it should be "American" because if a city can come together and find two bombers in just a little over 100 hours, then I'm pretty sure that the whole country can come together over a common cause.
"What I saw today, good versus evil, love versus hate. There's only one weapon you have to fight back with, it's love. We wrap out arms around each other. I don't think that there's any way that they could ever win" - Sergeant Tommy Saunders
