WASHINGTON -- Screams are sweet music to terrorists, the soundtrack they need to hear as they dramatize their grievances by murdering innocents.
They are the kings of chaos and the enemies of freedom, because their only true aim is to shackle society in the chains of fear.
But Monday was Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, a celebration of freedom in honor of the first shots fired in a war fought in the name of liberty.
And this afternoon, the meaning of the day was as important as the size of the crowd.
Bostonians celebrate the battles of Lexington and Concord in a touching act of community, a marathon in which strangers cheer on strangers, and runners push themselves toward the finish line with charming grit.
Today, rescuers were running toward the wounded on Boylston Street in acts of true heroism -- running toward the sound of the screams.
In the end, the terrorists will fail because Bostonians did not turn from their fellow men -- they turned toward them. And that is the real music of mankind.
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