Mayor Walsh: Lone Person of Strength During Difficult One Direction News

He is the only one.

marty walsh

Photo by Jeff Brown for Boston Magazine’s Power of Ideas

Today is an emotionally distressing day for teens and select adults alike as Zayn Malik, boy wonder and essential one-fifth of One Direction, announced on Facebook that he is exiting the greatest boy band in the world forever. One Direction assembled on the UK’s X Factor in 2010, and have since stolen hearts, put out four studio albums, and sold out several world tours, including a record-breaking three-night gig at Gillette Stadium. Ultimately, this is the saddest news in music that has ever happened.

While the internet is naturally beside themselves over the announcement (please just take a glance at Buzzfeed’s homepage and/or the writer of this blog’s Twitter feed), Boston’s own Mayor Marty Walsh has risen in spite of the sad occasion as the city’s pillar of strength during this difficult time. In his Twitter chat held on Wednesday afternoon, Walsh answered a lot of questions for users pertaining to recent news and issues in the city, but also made clear that he too is devastated about Zayn Malik.

Mayor Walsh might possibly be the only stable One Direction fan at this moment, but Directioners are slowly but surely collecting themselves.

He continued answering more questions from other users (which were collected using the hashtag #askMJW), all of which can be viewed on his Twitter. And Mayor Walsh prevailed despite being emotionally distraught over Zayn (and also limited to 140 characters). He remains brave.