I'd like to highlight some insightful and thoughtful responses I received from my friends in response to my
earlier post.
Suzie Sheetz:
Love your last line. That's the exact comment I had to my family. The news went out at 10pm, and by 10:20 I was online waiting for Obama's speech and all of my friends and people in my network had been on facebook, texting, or twitter. Very cool how fast information travels.
Matt Medved:
I was at the high school. I heard the news that a plane had crashed into the WTC over the loudspeakers and figured they meant a small passenger plane. I had an instant flash of a TIME cover resembling the photograph of the plane that crashed into the Empire State Building decades before, lodged in the metal framework miles above the city. Instead of going straight to class, I stopped by the A/V center to get a glimpse of what was happening and arrived just in time to watch the second plane crash live. When I got to math class, the teacher insisted on teaching as though nothing was happening. I got into a heated argument with her and walked out of the class to go watch more footage. I was glued to it for days. Honestly, I think 9/11 was a defining moment that sparked my interest in journalism and international affairs.
You know what I was thinking while I watched the celebrations at the White House?
How, despite the understandable criticism and shock at seeing raucous crowds cheer for Osama's violent murder, in many ways this was not a celebration of a death of a human being.
Osama bin Laden was a modern day bogeyman, a larger than life antagonist that seemed to defy both mortality and our military might. To our generation, he was simply an archenemy in a way that no other dictator or terrorist can match. To be perfectly honest, I've personally believed he was already dead for years. I figured he had disappeared into the shadows and perished peacefully surrounded by supporters or family in Pakistan. The specter of Osama bin Laden has loomed ever larger and far outlived the flesh and blood bin Laden. In many ways, the jubilation I felt at the news of his death was not as much about personal revenge or exacting bloodshed on a single man as it was a mix of wonder and happiness at the rewriting of a historical narrative that will long outlive the principal parties involved. The history books just changed and that ink is going nowhere. It has changed the legacy of Obama's presidency and validated the national security prowess of a President who had been doing far more to root out al Qaeda and disrupt plots than both the previous administration and any of his critics gave him credit for. My joy came not at the extinguishment of Osama's life as much as it did the subsequent legacy that the event will leave.
Jonathan Kent:
I remember exactly where I was on 9/11. When the first plane hit, I was in band class. We had a TV on (that's how we found out) and like the rest of the world, my classmates and I thought it was some yahoo who accidentally flew their cessna into one of the towers. By the time it was established this was no accident, I was in English class, where my teacher had to leave the room because she didn't want us to see her fall to pieces in worry over her relatives in NY. All after school activities were canceled, including my soccer practice, and I went straight to my neighbor's house to watch the news in disbelief on their big screen. I had never thought about al-qaeda or Osama Bin Laden before that.
His death closing the loop of our adolescence is fitting indeed and fascinating to consider in terms of how our generation is/continues to be defined. Thanks for this.
Eric de Feo:
my high school principal came into my English classroom and called us to assembly... it was pretty intense b/c half of our parents worked downtown.
Thanks to all who took the time to share your thoughts with me.
Caroline
