I don’t disagree with the sentiments of some who suggest that we should not celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden or chant USA! USA! in triumph considering the myriad costs of the “Global War on Terror.” But there are nuanced responses to this event depending on one’s circumstances and proximity to the attacks on 9/11. “Celebration” might not be the best word for what many people are feeling today.
For my family, like most Americans, September 11, 2001 was a day of fear. My husband works for a federal government agency and on 9/11, he was at his office a short distance from the White House. I was teaching and our children were in school. A knock on the door of my classroom interrupted my World History class and the office lady asked me to come outside. She told me that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked. My first thought was for my husband because we did not know if more attacks were coming. Our oldest sons were in 7th grade, our youngest son was in 5th grade and our daughter was in Kindergarten. I returned to the room to continue the lesson having been told not to say anything until the Principal made an announcement. But my 10th graders were aware that something was up.
A few minutes later the Principal made his announcement over the PA system. Many of my students had parents, relatives and family friends who worked in DC or at the Pentagon. The principal told us that we should continue our classes as usual and we would get updates as they became available. Some of my students were crying. We talked about whose parents worked in DC and the Pentagon. Some students asked if they could pray together. It was extremely difficult to go on with our class activities. We had no way of knowing if further attacks would come. Parents called into school to let their children know that various fathers and mothers who worked in DC and at the Pentagon were OK. Other parents arrived at school to pick up their children. School was dismissed at lunch time. I had not heard from my husband but I was reasonably sure that he was OK. I prayed that the attacks had ended.
As it turned out, my husband found out about the attacks from his mother in Pennsylvania. For some reason, his 80 year old mother had turned on the television that she rarely watched and saw the reports about the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In a panic, she called her son and told him to get out of DC. He had not heard anything about the attacks before she called him. After he calmed his mother by assuring her that he would leave, he looked out a window and saw the smoke across the Potomac. He went to the CNN website for confirmation. At this point other employees were announcing the news and there was some confusion as to what they should do. Everyone was frightened. Some people were weeping. My husband immediately called his employees together and told them to go home. Then he left. He did not yet know about Flight 93. The subway was not crowded. He tried to contact my school but all the circuits were busy. I was trying to call him, but all the circuits were busy.
Once school was dismissed, I picked up my own children and we went home. The boys were very worried about their father. I kept reassuring them that he was alright and that he was probably on his way home as well. My daughter didn't know what was going on but she knew that everyone was worried about Dad and that something terrible had happened. When we got home, my husband was already there. He told me about the phone call from his mother and how, thanks to her, he and his team were able to leave DC right away. The children were crying and hugging their dad. Our oldest sons wanted to know what this attack as all about. We turned on the TV and watched, horrified. After a while, we turned it off; it was too much for the kids.
Last night, my husband went to bed early. He had an early morning flight from Dulles to San Francisco for business. I always worry about him when he takes one of those flights because it was early morning flights to the West Coast, one of which originated at Dulles that al Qaeda terrorists crashed into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Last night the kids and I were doing various things in various rooms in the house when our youngest son (now 20) came bounding out of his room. He was excited. “Turn on CNN. We got Osama Bin Laden. He’s dead!” I turned on the TV and sure enough, that’s what Wolf Blitzer was reporting. As my children and I gathered in front of the TV, one of them asked if we should wake up Dad. “No.” I said, “Let him sleep.” My kids and I squeezed together the couch to watch the President.
After the President’s speech, we turned off the TV, not wanting to hear the commentators. We were quiet for a moment feeling the warmth of our love for each other and our thankfulness that Dad had escaped real danger on 9/11. The kids started reminiscing about how they felt on that day. Someone mentioned Mimi’s call to Dad. Someone mentioned the passengers of Flight 93 whose actions we have always credited with helping to keep Dad from mortal danger. Someone asked what the families of those who died on 9/11 must be feeling right now. My daughter remembered being confused and frightened. As our discussion turned to how we felt this night, my youngest son mentioned how remarkable it was that the President was so cool during the height of the birther nonsense last week even as he was engaged in the planning for the attack on bin Laden’s compound. I recalled how often, at the beginning of the Iraq War, the other President who we call “the fool” at our house, ordered attacks on compounds he and his lackeys thought might contain Saddam Hussein—killing many civilians, mostly women and children. Saddam was never harmed in those attacks. My oldest son, always cynical, wondered what would change now, if anything. Still, we felt...gratified, proud of the President.
When my husband woke up this morning, I told him the news. We listened to the radio on the way to the airport and when we could stand the commentary no longer, we turned it off and I asked him how he felt. He said the news was still sinking in. He was also thinking of his mother who passed away in 2009. She always said that she had a bad feeling when she got up on 9/11 and turned on the news. He was also thinking about the people on flight 93 and the others who died on 9/11. He also wondered what his younger sister, a tea partier, is thinking this morning. We don't talk much anymore. She's not intellectually challenged but she supports the birthers. She is an avid listener to Fox News. Once, she had the nerve to tell us that she became a Republican on 9/11 because she never wanted her brother to be in danger like that again. My husband was incredibly offended that she used the fact that he worked in DC on 9/11 for her Republican rhetoric. [The fact is that her husband works in the investment business and has "strategic" relationships with big banks--that's why she is a Republican and a Tea Partier.] Finally, my husband said that he is filled with pride in our President, who has accomplished many good things for our country even though there is still much to do. He's not "glad" bin Laden is dead but he isn't sad about it either. There is a measure of closure for him.
My family isn't celebrating but we are thankful that we have a President who is capable of strategic planning, who stays above the partisan bullshit on both the right and the left and who acts with deliberate and measured consideration toward an ultimate goal. We know that millions of people have died, been maimed and displaced over the past 10 years in the Global War on Terror. We realize that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda bear the majority of the blame for this. We also know that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Condoleeza Rice bear a share of responsibility because of their ideological and opportunistic exploitation of 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq and reward their campaign contributers with lucrative contracts. And we haven't forgotten that the media, who banged the drum for war in Iraq and refused to investigate the fraudulent evidence with which “the fool” made the case for war until it was too late, bear a share of the responsibility for this—none of these have suffered for their complicity and no one is calling for an investigation into the depths of that complicity or for sanction of media collaboration in the big lie. Finally we remember the cowardice of the members of Congress both Republican and Democrat who voted in favor of the Iraq War, when many had the means to challenge the lies of the Bush/Cheney administration but failed to do so.
Mostly, though we are thankful that Dad was safe on 9/11 and our hearts go out to the families of those who were killed or injured. If the death of Osama bin Laden speeds up the demise of al Qaeda and sends a warning to terrorists everywhere that THIS President will find and capture or kill those responsible for committing acts of terror which cause the deaths of innocent Americans, my family is grateful. Perhaps this is not a time to celebrate an enemy’s death but for me and mine, it is a time to be grateful for the leadership of an eminently capable President who acts with deliberation and intelligence rather than on partisan, ideological impulse.