They were scenes shocking and yet oddly familiar: Dazed people in the streets of a big city, trying to make sense of the terror that just surrounded them.
But what stands out as well: The people rushing in to help — law enforcement, first responders, volunteers.
When the first instinct of so many of us would be to run away, there were heroes who ran to the scene of Monday’s twin bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
First responders — police, firefighters, EMS — broke down temporary fences and leaped to rescue those injured.
Volunteers at a medical tent set up to treat minor race-related problems instead helped tie life-saving tourniquets.
Some runners stopped short of finishing the grueling 26.2-mile course continued running, headed to hospitals to donate blood — in fact, so many volunteers donated blood that the Red Cross advised they no longer needed donors.
Boston residents opened their homes to runners stranded after the area was turned into a crime scene and blocked off.
While we are all anxious to find out who could have done this, we are reminded that the better angels of our nature always far outweigh the evils that was done on Monday.
“Look for the helpers,” Fred Rogers once said in advice about what to do when we see those terrible images on our screens.
They are always there; they always will be. That is who we are.