John Tlumacki/Boston Globe via Getty Images
The runner is 78-year-old Bill Iffrig of Lake Stevens, Washington.
Knocked to the pavement by the first blast, he got up and finished the race.
Knocked to the pavement by the first blast, he got up and finished the race.
What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
the foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.
Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.
And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.
Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born in Boston in 1803.
I was glad to see he was OK. At first it looked like he was hit by shrapnel.
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