Look for the helpers

Unless you've been living under a rock, in a complete black out the past couple of days, you know that the Boston Marathon was the target of a sick person (or people) who decided to target the crowd. In the moments after the attack my twitter and facebook feeds blew up. I sat in horror and tried to process what had happened, mind running through the names of the people I know who run marathons and mentally taking a roll call of where each of my friends were in the world.

Moments later the words of one of my childhood "friends" started echoing across the internet. That friend was Mr. Fred Rogers. And he was reminding us to look for the helpers.

Now, two days later, the horror of what's happened hasn't lessened. I've answered my children's questions as honestly as I know how, simply saying I don't know when my nine year old asked my how a person could do that to all those innocent people. I reminded my five year old to look for the helpers, not only now, but whenever he feels scared. And, as only a child can do, he brought it all down to his little world, asking me if the books I write have helpers.

I can only hope that my fictional heroes will bring justice to the men and women who go out every day and run towards the danger, rather than running away. Those who will place themselves, literally, between an innocent and a threat. Those people, some of whom wear a uniform, some who dress like you and me, deserve so much more recognition than I can ever give them, either in this blog post or future books.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you helpers out there.