Joe Berti, Marathon Runner, Witnessed Both Boston Bombings And Texas Explosion

[Tx4obama]

Joe Berti, Marathon Runner, Witnessed Both Boston Bombings And Texas Explosion

-- People keep asking Joe Berti if he feels unlucky.

A bomb exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon seconds after Berti finished the race. Two days later, he was in his home state of Texas when he saw a fertilizer plant explode near Waco.

"I was just like, `I can't believe this!'" said Berti, who said he had never witnessed an explosion before. Then he thought: "I just want to get out of here and get away from all these explosions."

But Berti, as it turns out, is far from unlucky. Instead, he feels fortunate. He left both tragedies unscathed, while members of his running group and his wife – who was closer to the Boston explosion than he was – were also unhurt.

"It's a miracle," he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. "People keep saying, `Don't you feel unlucky?' and I was actually the opposite – saying not only do I not feel unlucky, but I feel blessed that my wife could be 10 yards from the explosion and not have a scratch."

-snip-

Rest of article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/joe-berti-marathon-runner_n_3113489.html

Wow!

[defacto7]

1. "We're grateful that God has been merciful to us"

Yes. It must be nice to feel that God was more merciful to them than others who died in both explosion incidents. More so than even little Martin.

[customerserviceguy]

2. Sort of a minor 21st Century version of Tsutomu Yamaguchi

the only man to witness both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.

[longship]

4. Sorry, he wasn't the only one.

I read a book about the atomic bombing of Japan when I was in my teens in the early sixties. There were over a dozen people who survived both atomic blasts. Many people who survived the Hiroshima blast escaped to other towns. Some, maybe many, made their way to Nagasaki. About a dozen of those survived the second blast.

I think Yamaguchi was the last of those survivors to die. (He lived to old age.) He was definitely not the only one to survive both.

Plus, the Nagasaki bomb did not do the damage it could have. It missed its target enough to significantly lessen its effects.

Either way, these things happen.

[customerserviceguy]

5. Interesting

I had only heard about Yamaguchi, I thought he was the only one. I would guess that he got the most publicity.

I would suppose that the fact that there were others who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki makes the gentleman whose story is in the OP just that much more rare.

[longship]

6. Rare, but expected.

There are thousands of big news stories each year. Certainly there would be coincidences like this all the time. We just don't hear about them very often.

But one has to consider prior plausibility before one can start kneeling and proclaiming miracle or divine guidance.

In practice, all it would take is if one of the 2,500+ residents of West, Texas be a marathoner. He (or she) only has to decide to run the Boston Marathon and we're done. When they return to West, TX they experience another big explosion in the same week.

If people argue it's a miracle, I would ask them about the number of people who were killed and maimed by three horrific explosions to bring about this so-called miracle for the benefit of a single fucking human being.

Tell the families whose lives have been ripped apart about this miracle.

Calling this any such thing utterly disgusts me.

[customerserviceguy]

7. Agreed

This attribution of good luck to a supreme being, without the corresponding assignment of blame for bad luck is quite disturbing.

[Ecumenist]

3. Well, he's in Good company. Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived BOTH the Nagasaki AND Hiroshima.

He actually went back to work once he arrived in Nagasaki despite wounds received in the bombing Hiroshima.

[Recovered Repug]

8. There was a woman named Violet Jessop who was a stewardess on the RMS Olympic

when it collided with the HMS Hawke in 1911. Violet then became a stewardess on the Titanic (Olympics sister ship) and we all know what happened. In 1916, Violet was serving on the Britannic (the 3rd sister ship) - then a hospital ship - when struck a mine and sank.

[rppper]

9. Possible bad analogy here but....

Doesn't this story have a sort of "final destination" feel to it?

Eeewwwww woooooo ewwwww.....