260 people who were injured one year ago today when a bombing shook the finish line of the boston marathon. the emablgz of the aftermath of the bombing are still difficult to look at but important to remember. last year in boston another day to remember, boards boston strong have come to represent the resilience of the city and the determination of the people who now live this tragedy every single day. a few survivors spoke at today's tribute sharing the pain of their struggles and the joy of their triumph. >> boston strong, a simple phrase with a not so simple meaning. it symbolizes our communal determination to spread compassion, generosity, unity, and pride. today i will not focus on the past, but be mindful of our successes and those who have helped us take our first steps.

we cleem our first mountains and reclaim our lives. >> later this hour we'll bring you live coverage as city and state leaders lead a moment of silence at the boston marathon finish line, site of last year's bomb attack. at the same time president obama and his senior advisors will also pay silent treb out at the white house. the president released a statement today that reads, in part, "the most vivid images from that day were not of smoke and chaos, but of compassion, kindness, and strength." earlier today veep biden spoke about that spirit of heroism. >> i want you to know that you're an inspiration without knowing it for people in this country that suffer tragedies and are going through tragedies. they see you and hear you, and the fact that you are here, i promise, gives them hope that maybe, maybe, they can overcome what they're facing now.

america will never ever ever stand down. we are boston. we are america. we respond. we endure. we overcome, and we own the finish line. >> in copley square police and thar monday officials have already set up barricades in viewing stands at this year as marathon. many of the runners whose race was cut short last year will be back next week to run and finish this race boston strong. nbc's ron mott is in copley square in boston. ron, we're between events in today's tribute. give us a sense of the people in boston today at, sort of the scene, the sense that are you getting? >> a lot of emotions coursing through the heart of the city today, as you can imagine. there's a lot of sadness, obviously, because we're remembering those four souls that were lost in that week of violence here. three, of course, on boyleston street. the police officer at m. i.t. in

cambridge who was killed a few days later. much of today's tribute is about the loss of life, but it is also a day for people to thank one another because if want for the quick action of a lot of people, spectators, first responders, police officers, firefighters, and then the extraordinary work of -- teamwork we saw at the hospitals that saved even more lives, we could have a much larger death toll than the four people who were lost last week, and there's a sense of accomplishment, a sense of gratitude by those survivors today because they're here, because of all that selfless action by a lot of people here. now, you mentioned vice president biden was here this afternoon. at the bottom of the hour we're expecting them to come outside. we're just a few yards down the street here from the finish line where they're going to hold an outdoor service. that is scheduled to begin at 2:30. we're just hoping this weather would hold off long enough to get through those 30 minutes. an emotional 30 minutes as you can might imagine. at 2:49 we're expecting to hold a moment of silence, which is the one-year mark of those --

the first of those two pressure cooker bombs going off, and a lot of survivors who were here who were running the race. those folks are coming back here. we met with one survivor on sunday who is paralyzed below the left knee. he is so thankful to be back in boston. he lives out on the west coast, and he has been out here for seven or eight days now. looking forward to being reunited with a lot of the medical staff and some of the people who helped him on that day that clearly saved his life. so it's -- there's -- there are a lot of emotions here. once we get through today everyone wants to focus on monday, patriots day, which is a big day here in new england especially, but here in massachusetts, obviously, for the big race, the boston marathon. >> people who run races, there are a lot of personal stories and a personal sense of accomplishment to finish a 26.2 mile race and a lot of folks, unfortunately, didn't get a chance to do that, so they'll be back along with about 35,000 or so others who expect to participate this year. it's going to be a great week here in boston.

today, of course, we're going through a lot of emotions. >> that resiliency is such an important part of this story. ron mott, thanks so much. i would like to bring in mike bellow deputy city editor at "the boston globe" and wesley lowery. both men reported on the bombings for the boston globe last year. i want to start with you, wesley. both you and mike were covering the bombing aftermath last year, and mike was your boss at the time. >> he was, in fact, my boss. >> he was your boss. take us back to the atmosphere in the city taet. >> of course. mean, one of the things to remember last year was how hectic everything was. for an entire week, not just the day of the bombings in which, you know, you had the marathon that was very chaotic. the city is already in a lot of ways very confined during that day.

>> there were bomb threats that were called in in different places, and there was a sense of panic, a little bit of kay ogs, and, you know, a ton going on that day. a very hectic week. >> i'm sure it was. "the boston globe" won a pulitzer for its coverage of the marathon bombings. it was the paper's first breaking news pulitzer. just as a reporter, it's kind of -- the question is a human being, where do you start with so much chaos, with so much happening, and you are actually in the space that is in jeopardy? where do you even begin to figure out sort of where to start on reporting a story like this? >> i think there was, you know -- you had to create a sense of order. you know, we established that bombs had gone off. we posted a story within ten, 12 minutes of the bombings. there were two devices. there was a search for more devices. the fire department, police were looking under the stand near the finish line. there was some talk about another device elsewhere in the city near the jfk library.

turned out not to be true. for five days this area was in a state of siege. there were all kinds of things being circulated, nfk being circulated and people were looking at various suspects. until those pictures actually came out on thursday of the two alleged boston marathon bombing suspects, we didn't have a face to the thing. then, of course, the nightmarish -- the killing of the m.i.t. police officer, the shootout in watertown and then the whole shelter in place the next day as had he search for the remaining suspect. it was an incredible time, and all we could do is basically go with what people told us, law enforcement, political folks, witnesses, trying to get the best sense of what was going on and getting it out as quickly as possible. keeping people informed. >> also keeping rumors in check. wesley, sort of -- i'll read you a little bit of a clip from

today's boston globe. you retweeted it, and it was bilgtsed the resilience of optimism. he writes "we have been in commemoration mode for weeks now, and there's still another week to go until the marathon, and i still can't figure out is it too much? too little? whether we realize it or not, we are connected to those so badly hurt last year, and seeing them get back to what they love and who they love that has healed so many, it is part of the healing process. it's part of the normalization process." even for yourselves how do you get back to the normalization process? there is another marathon to come in just a few days. there is still an investigation. there is still a trial to come. how do you decide how much is too much when covering a story like this sh. >> you know, i think for me personally i try to remember that we are all going to grieve and remember that trauma in different ways. you know, a lot of friends, people in boston, politicians in boston, people i know there have been having back and forth in

social media and other places talking about, you know, what is too much? at some point does it become a tragedy at some point? what's it mean? i think kevin cullen who wrote that remarkable column and did great column work after the marathon, i mean, i thought he really hit the nail on the head. this idea that each one of them have to deal with this in their own way. for reporters on the ground and my colleagues at the globe and people in our places in boston, i know these were traumatic days for us in terms of coverage, but for the people of boston it was also traumatic. how do we get back to normalcy? we run a race and finish a race, and that's what we're going to see on monday. we're going to get back to the marathon, and it's going to be a moment, you know. it's going to be a balance. it's both going to be commemorative and a triumph and resilience, and a return to normalcy because we're going to run a race and prove that, you know, the city of boston can't be knocked down, and when it does get knocked down, it's going to get back up. >> mike, over too -- i wanted to quickly show a photo because of the reunion photos of survivors. it's a really arresting photos on the boston globe website right now. you now were looking for a different news organization. how much of those individual

stories actually kind of stayed with you over the past year? i want to talk about that photo. that was an incredible coming together of nearly 600 people who really, you know, when they came together on april 6th, it just showed the spirit of union, of camaraderie, people talking about what had happened a year ago and also really in a period of grief and recovery. it's all about recovery and trying to deal with what happened, also move on. you know, people are not giving up. they will not be defeated. they'll carry on with their lives. i think that's the message for all the survivors, and the people who were in that photo that we have to get up and make a stand and go forward and have a race and then survive and live our lives without fear. >> wesley, i know you mentioned before just the chaos in the moment of trying to figure out sort of who even authorities were looking for, but there was this other aspect to this particular situation which has become, i guess, really common,

which is that social media also weighs in, and so you have not a -- the city's law enforcement, but sort of a world of people who are kind of amateur detectives and a lot of wrong information, misidentified suspects, et cetera. how much does that complicate the ability to get truth out to the public when you have so many people weighing in and so many platforms? >> it complicates everything. i remember being out on the -- out on the scene at some of the various places throughout that week, and people would be tweeting at me, what do you know about this, what's going on here, and a lot of it would be people across the country who were listening to police scanners and were trying to grab little tidbits of information and asking me what i can confirm on the ground. so it does create a large kind of noise machine, large echo chamber, a lot of times of misinformation. one of the things -- i can't speak highly enough of my former colleagues at "the globe" and the work from editors and other people to make sure things we were reporting were accurate because it isn't a game. when the city is under attack or the city is under siege, when you have people trying to figure out if their loved ones are okay and where it's safe and if

there's an active threat, it's important that you get these things right and, fortunately, my colleagues at the globe and i were able to get a lot of the stuff right because it was vitally important. >> yeah, indeed. well deserving of that pulitzer as a result. thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. coming up, we will take you live to boston for the tribute ceremony, and we'll talk about the ongoing investigation into the attack. that's next. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money?

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during the mare moans marking the one-year anniversary of the boston marathon bombings vice president joe biden spoke of the brothers who allegedly carried out the attack. >> that's why the twisted, cowardly terrorists who acted

here and other places do what they do. they try to instill fear so that we will jettison what we value the most and what the world most values about us, an open society. >> dzokhar tsarnaev is scheduled to go -- 17 of which carry the death penalty. as for his late brother, tamerlan, a government report thursday cites several steps where the fbi did not follow-up on its investigation of the older brother prior to the bombing. however, approximate also tindz no evidence that these would have thwarted the attack. if anything, the boston marathon bomb issing a reminder both that homegrown attacks are rare, and that despite our best efforts, there won't always be safety in numbers, even in seemingly safe spaces from a determined few bent on mayhem. evan coleman is an nbc terrorism

analyst and a senior partner at flash point global partners. we were talking about this a little in the break. first of all, what do we know about the tsarnaev brothers and what might have caused them to become radicalized. >> we know bits and pieces. reportedly, the fbi has found multiple copies of a magazine on these folks' computers, inspire magazine. it's a bomb-making manual written by al qaeda in yemen written in english. its purpose is to teach radical -- the lone wolf terrorist attack. was this what radicalized them? were they radicalized before they got this? it's not really clear. what the russians, according to this report, passed along to the fbi was far from definitive. they use the same words to describe the tsarnaevs as the protesters in kiev. how would we know what exactly the nature of the threat was, and just because of the russians being angry that someone is sympathetic with chechen rebels, that doesn't make a home grown terrorist. there are a lot of extremists

out there. there are people that say awful things on the internet. it's very difficult to tell who is really a dangerous person and who is simply talking loudly. >> in this case not even talking loudly, right? i think that is what is so frightening about this, and you cannot say enough how rare these kinds of attacks are. this isn't something that happens all the time, but because there is no sort of triggering language or event, there's no way to know short of essentially violating the fourth amendment rights of everyone who goes to a country we think radicals live in, is there any way to even sort of preanticipate this kind of behavior? >> it's extremely challenging. one of the things in the report was that the fbi said, look, in retrospect looking at this guy's computer, looking at all the content on there, well, yeah, they had bomb-making manuals, there were radical texts. how would you know that until you had the hard drive, until you had the computer? we couldn't possibly know that. i know it's attractive to try to look at this and say who missed what, who is to blame, but a lot

of this is monday morning quarterbacks and a lot of this is in hindsight. it's very, very challenging to stop home grown terrorists. it's very difficult to stop self-radicalized lone wolf terrorism. to be honest, a lot of the guys are going to end up failing. a lot of these guys are going to go nowhere, but it only takes a handful of them to succeed in order to cause chaos, and even in small ways. this was not 9/11, the boston bombings, and, yet, it had an incredible impact not just on boston, but the country at large. >> so now you have the -- a cell of two is almost impossible to spot in advance, and then once you now have only one surviving member of this conspiracy that we only know of has two people, you now have the surviving brother essentially trying to say, wait a minute, this was all the older brother's idea and the lawyers for him essentially arguing that he just went along. in the profile of people who commit these kinds of, i guess we still call it lone wolf attacks when there are just two people, how likely is it that you just have a simple follower in the group who is sort of -- has less agency in these kinds

of attacks? >> it's an interesting argument. i think it also fits into a similar argument that has been used in the past about fbi informants that if you have someone come along and an fbi informant pushes them into a plot, how much are they responsible? to be perfectly honest, these kind of defenses don't generally -- they're not very effective in front of a jury when the evidence is laid out, these kind of defenses are very difficult to explain to people. i mean, you have bin laden's son-in-law the other day trying to explain here in court that, oh, i was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he just asked me to make speeches, and i was just, you know, a small part of this. it didn't play for the jury. it's difficult to see how it will play here either. >> i think wrapping it up, i mean, if, in fact, it is this difficult to anticipate and then it's even that difficult to explain, if they do not find at some point some link to a larger terrorist organization, should that frighten americans more? is this more frightening than an actual cell or terrorist cell that is out to attack the united states?

>> look, i think what it should do is make people aware that if you see people in your community that are acting truly unusually and they look like they're browsing terrorist propaganda and they're talking about collecting weapons and they're acting in wrong ways about -- whether it's a white supremacist that wants to shoot up jewish school, whether it's somebody who wants to blow up the boston marathon, there's a small number of dedicated but extremely fanatical folks out there that are willing to commit acts of violates, and, unfortunately, the fbi is not going to be able to find them on their own. they need tips from the community, and in this case i think one of the most effective ways for the fbi to have zeroed in on these folks would have been people from within the community to say, look, these folks are acting very odd, they're talking about holy war, they're talking about killing innocent people, they're causing disruptions of the mosque. maybe you should look into them, and i think that's really the clue that we're looking for here or the best way of identifying when people have gone to the point of being a public concern. >> yeah. the advice is still the staim

same. just notice and say something about it. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. take a look now. we're going to look at live pictures of the people of boston gathering at the finish line for the end of today's tribute. one year later. up next a special we the tweeple where you become part of the story of boston strong. [ male announcer ] sponges take your mark. [ female announcer ] one drop of ultra dawn has twice the everyday grease cleaning ingredients of one drop of the leading non-concentrated brand... to clean 2x more greasy dishes. dawn does more. so it's not a chore. to clean 2x more greasy dishes. predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job done.

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it's about people. we are volvo of sweden. >> you are looking at live pictures at the spot near the finish line for the boston mare thob where people are gathering for the ceremony commemorating one year since the boston marathon attacks, and as you can see, the weather is not being cooperative for the ceremony that we will be covering throughout this hour. all right. now, normally here on "w he the tweeple" we bring the stories to you buzzing on social media. today we want to look at how we all experienced the marathon attack in real-time and how it's helping people to remember the

victims today. many much you learned of the tragedy on twitter or follow the manhunt and for the perpetrators on social media. the boston police department also used tweets to communicate vital information to citizens. in fact, the boston police chief twitter account swelled from 54,000 followers to 304,000 during the investigation, as many of you sought to assist in the problem. a brand new report by harvard's din school of government praised the use of twitter by boston police saying it "demonstrated the level of trust and interaction that a department and a community can attain on-line." on the first anniversary of the attacks, you are also uniting as a community on social media. these _#s with your statements of support and remembrances for all those impacted by the bombing have been trending today. you are also tweeting personal snap shots of the memorials that sprang up around the city in the bombing aftermath as a way of honoring the victims and first responders. you are also sending uplifting tweets like this one.

"a year ago i was a block away from the boston marathon bombing. time flies, but our city is still boston strong. proud to be a bostonian." more on-line inspiration comes from photographer robert fogerty. his amazing portraits show the great heroism of the bombing survivors. this project called "dear world" captures the meaning of the _#boston strong that's trending on twitter right now. the photographer took these arresting images of survivors, first responders, loved ones of the victims and supporters on their bodies they've written the names of victims and slogans of renewal. they've returned to the finish line where the bombs went off to show the world that despite the pain of the attacks, boston remains stronger than ever. now this news. three thernkz you need to know about this year's boston marathon.

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outside just about to get underway in just a few minutes. at 2:49 p.m. eastern there will be a moment of silence. within seconds of the boston marathon attack, hundreds of stranger rushed towards the blast risking their own lives to help fellow citizens. one of those heroic rescues was captured in this iconic associated press photo. it shows jeff bow bowman. moments earlier he had been waiting for his girlfriend. his own legs were blown off. with him were carlos arodando. he is there in the cowboy hat. a complete stranger who jumped to bowman's aid. also, devin wang and paul mitchell, who helped to get bowman to safety. in the year since the tragedy bowman and arodando have become friends. we saw bowman at a bruins hockey game weeks after the attack. the men were honor by james taifrl and others at last year's

world series. we also saw blowman like this. raw, in pain, struggling to rebuild his life, and those photos of bowman's recovery taken by "new york times" photographer josh haynor have just earned haynor a pulitzer provides. first of all, congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> basically -- well, i want to start with actually that day because you actually experien d experienced. >> we saw television cameras -- television screens all over the newsroom that there had been explosion tiz finish line of the boston bombing, and i got in my car and with a fellow photographer drove up to boston where we spent the next ten days

photographing the aftermath and the funerals, the memorial services, the hunt for the suspects in watertown. yeah. >> you wound up spending, like, 20 days with this gentleman, mr. bowman. tell us a little bit about that and how the photo series unfolded for which you have now won a pulitzer prize. >> one of our reporters, attorney general rowan, was able to meet jeff's father the day after the marathon. he was able to work with him to meet jeff and to talk to jeff about the "new york times" telling his story and tim made a great connection with jeff and

when he first met him i was struck by his bubblyness and a great sense of humor. he has a great sense of humor. he was really courteous and kind to everybody that looked after him at the hospital. always saying thank you and please to the doctors and nurses. >> so i wanted to just sort of walk you through. i mean, you went through -- you were with this man at one of the most difficult times in his life. i want to show one of the photos, which is hem having his sutures being removed. how difficult was it to sort of -- you're there in the moment with somebody who is probably going through the most difficult time in his life, and you are there to chronicle, to not sympathize, not to participate. how do you even process all of that? >> walking into that hospital room, this was one of the first times i had seen jeff in real pain. he tried to guard that, guard himself a lot, and his mother couldn't even stay in there because she was so traumatized with what he was going through.

it was tim and i in there. it was tough to see somebody i had grown to know going through pain. we had to document the moment because it was an important part of his recovery and an important part of what we need to remember about the boston attacks. >> i am watching another important part which is him walking for the first time on his artificial legs and that's another photo that you took. tell us a little bit about that moment. >> this was an emotional moment for me. when i really met jeff, i wanted see him walk as well, and this was the first time that he had stood on his own since the bombing. he was there sharing it with his girlfriend and his girlfriend's sister. his now fiance came around and in this picture was hugging him, and she asked if she could come around and kiss him, and they were finally standing, and he was taller than her for the first time and since the bombing. >> let's hear from bowman.

this is him talking about his future. let's take a listen. >> my goals in the future have changed drastically. i had no idea what i was going to do. now i think i have goals. i want to walk and be normal again. i want to wear pants, shoes. i want to stand up. be tall wrush. >> your goals get a lot simpler when you have gone through something like this. >> yeah, yeah. jeff always talks about wanting to get back to being normal, and for him that meant wearing pants. i think at the state of the union that was the first time he wore pants. >> what about getting back to normal? i mean, for you having chronicled this and spent this much time for this person, does he become sort of a permanent part of your life? how do you then detach from this story and move on to the next thing? >> it will be hard. jeff is a great guy. he texted when he heard we won the pulitzer -- or that i had

won the pulitzer. he was excited. his mother yelled. i'll be looking forward to celebrating with him and hopefully photographing his wedding next year. >> i think we should show a photo of jeff bowman and his fiance. we have a picture of him with his fiance at their home. they're actually expecting their first child in july. a lot more to chronicle, and the story continues. more for you to photograph. >> july 14th she's due. >> i assume that you are invited to the wedding. >> i believe so. >> you better be. thank you so much. we really appreciate you being here. john, pulitzer prize-winning photographer for the "new york times". >> thank you. >> you get to si that for the rest of your life. that's a good thing. >> up next, we'll take you to boston for coverage of today's tribute, and joining me with an msnbc chris jansing who reported from boston one year ago. okay ladies, whenever you're ready. thank you. thank you. i got this. oh, no, i'll get it! let me get it. uh-uh-uh. i don't want you to pay for this. it's not happening, honey. let her get it. she got her safe driving bonus check from allstate last week. and it's her treat.

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>> we're awaiting a moment of silence marking the horrific events last year. you see the yan scene near the finish line in boston where a lot of people have gathered with umbrellas during inclement weather waiting for that ceremony to begin. i am joined now by msnbc's own chris jansing, host of "jansing & company," a show i know well. i have been a guest on it. she reported live from boston in the days after the bombing. chris, thank you so much for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> well, take us back to that time. i mean, obviously this is a city that is now, in part, mourning, but also trying to show a sense of resiliency. >> i think they from the very beginning. i remember getting there late that afternoon, early evening after the bombing that day. the most remarkable thing, and people elsewhere say it's uniquely american. the way we come together when people are in need. whether it's after a tornado, a natural disaster, a school shooting, or in this case the boston marathon. one of the things you have to remember -- i'm so glad we're going to see this in a few days.

boston has always been so proud of its marathon. this had been a day of thrills and excitement. for hours people were afraid. they didn't know it was going to happen next. people weren't sure if there was going to be another shoe to drop. remember, it was days looking for the suspects in this, but through it all, the first place i went was to one of the main hospitals. people going in, people wanting to give blood and, of course, the amazing first responders, the doctors, and the nurses who clearly saved so many lives that day. re-resilience, we hear that word a lot today. i'm not sure it even describes what we've seen in that city from the first moments those bombs went off. >> absolutely. i think earlier this morning some of the -- the team and i were talking about just the sense of resiliency even of the victims. this is a life-changing event. you have lost limbs. >> 16 people lost legs. >> and people -- you see that sense of defiance almost in the spirit that we're seeing there in boston. the way people are defying, in a

sense saying to terrorism, you won't win because we're going to take this group photo and tell our stories. whereas, i wonder if i would be that strong. but it seems like the group strength is just incredible. >> it is infectious, and it is this part uniquely boston. first of all, when we see firefighters and firemen and police officers, when you hear the bagpipes play, and you see so many -- there you see vice president biden. when you see so many of the familiar faces of the long-time politicians in boston, but look at the people who have come outstanding in the rain. they want to be there to pay tribute both to the people who lost their lives there, the people who are still suffering, so many people who were injured, who are still having procedures, who still suffer from ptsd, hearing loss, who are struggling to learn, to function without a limb. they've all come together to say we're in this together, and i think it's always -- to me it's

always moving and remarkable the way that happens. >> there's also still a trial to come. it's not faz the pain is over. we did see thomas menino and former mayor walsh. they were in the delegation that walked up with vice president biden, and this, i do believe, is ronan tynan, acclaimed operatic tenor, i believe. we're going to listen to him now. ♪ allegiance to a land that's free ♪ ♪ let us all be grateful as we raise our voices in a solemn prayer ♪

♪ god bless america ♪ land that i love ♪ stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above ♪ ♪ from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans ♪ ♪ god bless america ♪ my home sweet home ♪ god bless america ♪ my home sweet home

[ applause ] >> that was ronan hynan, the acclaimed tenor who had his own legs amputated below the knees, and he has previously sung the national anthem at fenway park. i believe standing right behind him to his right was carlos arrodando. i think the moment of silence is starting now. >> thank you.

[ bells tolling ]

♪ oh, say have you seen by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ what so proudly we hail that the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪ ♪ and the rockets' red glare

the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ gave proof through the night that our flag was still there ♪ ♪ oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ o'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ and the home of the brave? ♪ [ applause ] >> even the sun seemed to come

out just a bit. >> the rain did seem to let up. you saw some of the umbrellas were foldeded, and i was reminded when i heard the church bells that on the day after the bombing i went to the church where the family of 8-year-old martin richard who was killed worshipped, and as you may remember, his mother was seriously hurt, his sister lost a leg, and when i arrived there, there were just so many people who were coming. they were leaving flowers. mostly it was the community. the community coming together. i went into his neighborhood, and there were mothers with kids who played softball with martin, and, you know, they talked about how they were determined as a community, as moms, to get through this. obviously to have the friend of one of your child killed like that. it was so devastating. yet, the way i saw those moms talking, making sure that their

kids were having a good time, this they went out in the backyard, explaining to them when they needed to, and you saw them kind of staying close. you know, checking in with their moms now and again. little 8 and 9-year-old boys. something you can so relate to as a mother. you have the sense for the tragedy that has happened and the sorrow of what has been lost. the coming together and the belief that things will get better. that the sun will come out again. to use the cliche, and, yet, as they often say, just because it's a cliche doesn't mean it isn't true. it certainly has been for boston. they have a long way to go. not just the trial, but as we've talked about, the recovery that needs to both psychological and physical for the people who were there that day, but i think what we're watching right now is a remarkable sight. >> it is remarkable, and you see you have the vice president of the united states, former governor duvall patrick there. you have just the coming together not just of public

officials, not just of the powerful, but of sort of the every man, every sort of part of boston just sort of the world kind of coming to stand with this community and they're going to have the marathon, run that marathon. >> a record number of people are going to run that marathon, and we've already seen some of the people who lost limbs that day, who were walking along boyleston who were taking that route today. ending, in fact, where we're seeing this ceremony now. saying we're not going to change. our life is not going to change. it's something we saw in an extraordinarily huge way after 9/11. i was here. i lived in new york at the time. that same sense of ownership in our community, in our lives, and not letting tregss disrupt that, we're seeing again today in boston. >> you had this assertion of new york culture. >> absolutely. >> the assertion of what makes you a new yorker. you see this with the bagpipes and even having ronan be the person to sing "god bless

america" and this really feisty assertion of boston as a cultural thing and not just as a city. >> they were very welcoming of the media, and it's a very fine line you walk when you go somewhere after a tragedy to be honest with you. they wanted fir stories to be told. their family, their friends wanted us to understand what had been lost, and i remember on a couple of separate occasions when i was out in the city, whether it was doing a story or running to get something to eat, people stopping me and saying i hope you'll come back. i hope you'll come back to boston, and what we saw in new york was after an initial sort of period of fear that people made a concerted effort to go. you didn't have to live in new york. you didn't have to live in boston to say i'm not going to be afraid. i'm not going to be deterred.

i won't have my freedom abridged by people that don't believe in the concept of freedom. >> i think that is the danger in this business. you can tend to focus on the crime rather than on the survivors, and for this not to become a story that becomes known by the name of the bombers. the victims' names -- i hate to call them victims. the survivors names become known as well, and they are appreciated. this about them. >> if people don't remember you would be touched any time a child loses a life so senselessly. just before that martin richard -- there was a picture of him holding a sign. he had written a sign "no more hurting people, peace." it was unbelievable that that child had written those words, that that photograph that photograph had been taken and that went viral all around the world. a message from an 8-year-old boy who gave his life, who did

nothing more than go out with his family for the day to have a good time, lost his life, and, yet, in that became a messenger of peace. there wasn't a dry eye even among the press corps. >> you mentioned the photo going viral. how much has this sort of social media explosion changed kind of the shared experience of something like this? there was always a national source that tells us what happened. it becomes really a shared really international experience. >> it does, and it also -- you know, we have different ways that we can get our information. it used to be -- i'm old enough to remember when john f. kennedy was shot, and you sat around your television, and you watched one of three networks, and it was a national experience. we grieved together. those kinds of experiences became part of our national

psyche. now it's so diffuse because everyone essentially becomes a citizen journalist. you like to think they come to sources that are trained to do this to get information, but there is a real tribute to be paid and that we've seen paid in being able to send out pictures of heroism, of people who rush to the finish line not knowing -- i mean, two bombs went off in rapid succession. another one could have dwaun off. yet, we see people tweeting pictures of folks rushing to the finish line to help the injured. those kinds of things that go out instantaneously are almost like balm on an open wound in just the minutes after it happens. >> you know, it is sort of good news and bad news, right, that it takes these horrific events to kind of have those moments, those shared experiences as a country. i mean, as polarized as this country is, these are the moments we still can have those very rare shared experiences, shared emotions where everyone agrees that we are on the side of those people, those people

who are saying boston strong, that's something that it cuts across every demographic, every ideology. >> yeah. there is no -- there is no gray in this. there's no question about right or wrong, and there's no question about what it means to be part of a city, to be part of a country, to be a place where we celebrate our freedoms. i will say that, you know, we occasionally do have those in a very happy light, the olympics. people come together and root on team usa. this is different because we're doing this in the face of adversity, and we've done that extraordinarily well throughout the course of our history, and i think we're going to see this in the coming days when i hear people going that are there now, they want to go and be joyous. they want to go there and run in memory of the people who lost

their lives. in memory of those that lost limbs, but also as a sign of that resilience. >> absolutely. i think of those people in that photo project that were writing the names. >> unwlooechbl, right? >> of the people that they've lost on their bodies. >> the number of people who came out. extraordinary. >> it's incredible. i think this might actually be the boston marathon coming up might be the most important that has been run in a long time. >> healing. >> absolutely. >> thank you for being with us, msnbc's chris jansing. the cycle is up next. >> we're going to jump to a developing story. there's been an explosion at the finish line of the boston marathon.

>> it's frankly scary that they are calling it two bombs. >> it was an stlulgts beautiful day gone tragedy iing. >> these people desperately wanted to survive, and -- or the individuals probably somewhere today saying i hope i got away with it. >> boyleston street once blood stained now repainted. boston has unfinished bess. >> it is an important step in the healing process. >> kind of fighting to -- fighting yourself to move forward. >> to stand here today in front of you to thank you personally for saving my life.