In a society of many thoughts and beliefs, there can be differences which lead to violence. The United States has seen attacks against it due to these thoughts or beliefs. The fear of this happening again is great with increasing technology as well as the recent attack on the Canadian government and the people able to get over the fence of the White House. The most recent notable attack directly on the United States would be the Boston Marathon bombing. On April 15th, 2013, there were two bombs set off at the Boston Marathon. This set off a series of effects on the people, city, and country. After such an attack, there are a series of events that take place. These events start with the initial attack and go all the way through to the recovery of all those involved in incident. Through this, the people have to decide if they will let the attack ruin their lives forever or if they will stand up and live to show that no matter what happens, they will still be there.
The first time a terrorist attack will affect a population is during the initial attack itself. The attack, usually thoroughly formulated by a large group, small group or individual, is used to initiate fear into a country, city, religion, etc. by the killing of people to use as an example of their power. The attack ends up hurting or killing many people. The first people directly affected are the victims. The victims, either hurt or killed, are now affected for the rest of their lives. One such example of this is the Boston Marathon Bombing of 2013. The most known victim is Jeff Bauman, who became the “face” of the victims. His picture circulated after the bombing of being rescued and showed the effects on him.  Jeff lost both of his legs due to the attack, causing him to be the only double amputee of the attack. He was close to the first bomb when it went off and was the only person to see the bomber and what he looked like, having looked him right it the eye. The next people who were directly affected by the attack would be the first responders. These people are the brave souls who throw themselves into danger for the sake of helping those who are injured. An example of this from Jeff’s story is that a man in a large cowboy hat was the first person that Jeff saw when he regained consciousness. As seen in the video of the bombing, the man rushed across the street to the bomb site to help the injured. This man, later identified as Carlos, was one of many first responders. These people risked their lives to help with the injured, clear debris to make room for emergency personnel and are ever barely recognized by the people for their work of good. These people are as much victims of the attack as those who are injured for the sights they encountered and the hardships they faced because of the attack.
Following the initial terrorist attack, a city will go on lockdown. All citizens who are not considered city personnel (policemen, SWAT, National Guard, FBI, etc.) will be required to stay indoors and out of the way the manhunt for the instigator of the attack unless for emergency uses. All stores, businesses, and public places are shut down; people’s lives are shut down. With this shutdown, there is nothing for the citizens to do, effectively bringing their whole lives to a screeching halt. This halt in the busy city life, while very useful for the people on the manhunt, is very harmful to the lives of everyone else. Businesses will lose money every day they sit idle, people can’t have a chance to go outside but rather sitting in their houses waiting for the news that they are allowed back to their lives. Hospital will go on lockdown to protect the patients and the personnel.  In Stronger, Jeff’s girlfriend, Erin, claimed that when she went out, that “there wasn’t a single honking horn” in the whole city. The city is so shut down it is as if it is a ghost town, not a city with a population of 700,000, so silent it is. This lockdown affects the population of the town the most. The manhunt begins with the FBI investigating and asking the victims for information about what they knew. Jeff Bauman was the only one to get a look at the bomber, so was a key role in the investigation. The manhunt will then look at security tapes trying to find the people responsible for the attack. Once identified, in the case of Boston the Tsarnaev brothers, the authorities will really begin looking for the people. These authorities risk their lives to find these attackers to make sure the rest of the city is safe, and when thanked are very humble for their work as just being part of the job. In Boston, the attackers were found and were involved in a fire fight with the police in a residential area and one would be killed, while the other got away, keeping the hunt going until he was found hiding in the covered boat of a resident of the town. Once the manhunt is over, the city can go back to the regular routine of bustling streets and busy businesses. When the word went out that the Tsarnaev brothers were both killed, it is said that “ the people started pouring out of their houses toward public places, overjoyed to have their city back” and that the cheers could be heard in the fifth-floor hospital room of Jeff Bauman. The next day, the Boston Red Sox played a baseball game.
While the city seems to be fine in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, the city is still deeply damaged. The most damage starts with the individual victims. The victims have to go through large amounts of rehab to be able to keep on with their lives. The victims lives are stopped as their have to recover, some of which have to completely learn a new style of life to survive regularly with the idea of relearning how to walk. Their relationships are strained as they are under large amounts of stress, guilt, frustration, and fatigue. Jeff Bauman, a double amputee had to completely recreate his muscles in his legs to be able to stand up in his prosthetics as well as building large amounts of upper body strength to be able to lift his body to move without the prosthetic legs. Some other people did not have to relearn to walk, but rather go through physical therapy to help build up muscles that had been damaged by shrapnel from the blast. These victims have more to deal with than just physical problems; they have to deal with emotional and mental recovery as well. The victims will never be the same after being wounded by an attack such as this. People will have nightmares from the event, question why it happened to them, if something like that will happen again, and much more. Jeff Bauman had to deal with fear of his family or girlfriend not wanting him because of his new disability, but would be proved wrong when his whole family and girlfriend Erin stayed beside him the whole way. The victims also have to decide if they are going to let the attack ruin their lives, or continue and live to spite the attackers. Jeff decided that he wasn’t going to let the Tsarnaevs win, that he was going to live his life the way he wanted and his disability is not going to define him for the rest of his life. This can be seen today because Jeff and Erin are now happily married with a healthy daughter.
The next place that is damaged is the city as a whole. The city will not feel completely safe for a long time, having an atmosphere of paranoia for a period of time. The city will also have stricter safety precautions with the authorities. The city will also have physical scars of where the attack happened which would take teams of people to help in the cleanup. The city life could take a while to get back to the “normal” that was everyday life before the attack. The city of Boston began such recovery starting with the Red Sox game the day after the second Tsarnaev was killed. The city of strangers band together to become Boston Strong, to show the world that that event wasn’t going to stop them from being people and living their own lives. These people will unite together to fix their city and to support the victims. This can be seen when Jeff Bauman and other victims were invited to a Red Sox game to sing “America the Beautiful,” accompanied by James Taylor and the whole stadium. He would also be recognized at two Bruins Games to bare the flag at the beginning of the game. The crowds went crazy that he was there, fully supporting him. The citizens of Boston would come together to fix their city and to completely support the victims. They would become “Boston Strong.”
The third place that is affected by a terrorist attack is the country. A country that is attacked will have to place a series of stronger safety precautions to better protect their country. A country will now not allow bags into certain areas such as sport stadiums and metal detectors at any public place to avoid another attack of this kind. The security will now be upped at airports, having stricter TSA laws and more frequent random bag searches. Sport stadiums will now have snipers above to watch the crowd in case there is an attack of some sort. Any government building will have increased security to protect the officials of the government. Overall, the country will take large safety precautions to protect eh citizens from a similar attack. The people e of the country will also band together to support the attacked city. People of all ages and all background donated money to not only the city but to Jeff Bauman specifically in the “Boston Strong” idea to help pay for medical expenses. A country full of strangers is willing to come together to support their fellow American and form a combine front against the attack and to help to heal from such a threat and attack together.
A terrorist attack has many effects on the people, city, and country. With the initial attack and the victims automatically effected and the first responders, to the city shutdown and manhunt, to the recovery of the victims, city, and country. After an attack, though can have negative effects, it is up to the people involved on whether they will let the terrorists win or if they will live their lives and to be effected to spite them. A city full of strangers join together to support their victims and to thank authorities for dealing with the problem and making their city safe again; for giving Boston back to the people. Stranger will help each other along the way, staring at first responders, to medical teams, police, FBI, regular citizens finding the brothers, to a country full of people willing to give money to help the victims and to help “rebuild” the city. The power of a stranger is incredible and instrumental in the process of the aftereffects of a city. A stranger creates the idea of attack people, a stranger, helps to get a victim to an ambulance, a stranger drives to the hospital, a team of strangers keep the victim alive and help to heal them, strangers donate to the cause, strangers take care of the threat to their city, strangers all come together to create Boston Strong. These strangers decide to not let the attack destroy their lives and affect them the rest of their lives, but to stand up and live their lives.