Obama: Boston, 'You Will Run Again'

Speaks at memorial service for marathon victims
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2013 11:46 AM CDT
Obama: Boston, 'You Will Run Again'
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attend the "Healing Our City: An Interfaith Service" at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013.   (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Obama spoke at an interfaith memorial service for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing today, starting his speech with a reminder that "Scripture tells us to 'run with endurance the race that is set before us.'" And Boston, "you will run again," he assured the crowd. Like 78-year-old runner Bill Iffrig, Obama said, "We may be momentarily knocked off our feet. But we'll pick ourselves up. We'll keep going. We'll finish the race." In fact, Boston's "resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act," Obama said. "If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, to shake us from those values that [Gov. Deval Patrick] described, the values that make us who we are as Americans, well, it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it. Not here in Boston."

He spoke about each of the three victims who lost their lives, specifically calling out a heart-tugging picture of 8-year-old Martin Richard holding up a handmade sign reading, "No more hurting people. Peace." And he got personal: "Boston may be your hometown, but we claim it too," he said. "I know this because there is a piece of Boston in me. You welcomed me as a young law student across the river. You welcomed Michelle, too. And like you, in this moment of grief, we join you in saying: Boston, you're my home." (More Boston Marathon bombing stories.)

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