By Luis Vasquez
I'm confused. Is this really all happening? There's too many twists and turns for a lot of us to fully grasp. To quote my friend Jason, "I just want my city back." I'm writing this now with no edits and no deleting, just raw. Risky? Maybe.
It's really true what they say, you can never really know somebody. Where do I begin with this?
My wife has been in their home. She knew the family.
I helped to coach Dzhokhar when he was on the JV soccer team at CRLS. He was quiet, respectful, a great listener.
Tamerlan was a soft-spoken, big friendly giant in high school. He smiled. He cared for people. I've had lunch with him. He always kept a very watchful eye over his younger sister. I would bump into him from time to time after high school. He would always ask me how I'm doing first, very sincere. He would update me on his friendly wager with my cousin as to who would win the day they get into the boxing ring together. He had a sense of humor. He mentored my cousin through his boxing aspirations, always making himself available to him.
If you ask anyone that knew them in high school or even a bit after, they will tell you, these guys never showed signs of wanting to harm people. I didn't recognize them at first because Tamerlan usually had a light beard and hardly ever wore a hat. In the FBI photos he had a clean shave, glasses, and a hat on. Hard to recognize. Dzhokhar had more of a baby face when I coached soccer at Rindge, so I didn't recognize him right away either.
Rely on the past-tense here because I have no idea how or where these kids got lost in the shuffle. What Tamerlan and his brother did is unacceptable, horrendous, and incredibly insulting. They were members of our society. That's so shameful.
This stuff never happens in Boston, let alone Cambridge now. If you aren't a Cambridge native or a resident, it's hard to understand the uniqueness and the joy that comes with living here. This is not what we're about. We actually stand for the complete opposite, no middle ground. We embrace peace, liberty, freedom of expression, culture, and teamwork. That's my community. Not a million television stations and SWAT surrounding a home around the corner on Norfolk Street.
Stay strong, America. Justice will prevail. God Bless everybody.
