needlekind:

i’m really proud of boston today, and i’m saying this as a bostonian who got to attend the protest in copley—granted, i’ve only moved to the area recently, but i grew up on the cape, an hour and a half away from the closest city we have and not severely different, culturally, because of it. cape codders know boston, have friends there, visit there all the time; we aren’t boston entirely but you can’t untie us from the city

all of these people hemming and hawing about the (incredibly low) chances of a terrorist attack to justify their xenophobia, and look at this turnout for the protest against the muslim ban today!

(courtesy of pbs)

(courtesy of cbs)

the boston marathon bombing was not that long ago. like, there’s no way the vast majority of people here didn’t have to deal with that and the aftermath; the fear and the desperation involved in having your city or even just your neighbors on lock down, the struggle inherent in finding a way to cope with something so unthinkable.

that’s the kind of thing that people use as an argument to prop up their xenophobic support of the muslim ban and similar suggestions and legislation, but how much more transparent can you get when the people actually affected by it stand together and say, “we know the (infinitesimal) risk, we know it better than most of you, and our city is open, our airport is open, our arms are open, and we welcome you, we stand with you”

i’m really proud to live in a community that found safety again through being boston strong and brought themselves together, but never closed themselves off in the process