Monday, May 02, 2011

Usama Bin Laden- Dead.

I don't think my personal views on Usama Bin Laden or September 11th are that noteworthy or novel- I'm like many of you in that I remember the day of the attacks vividly and have been absorbing the effects of such for many years thereafter.

My initial reaction to the terrorist attacks of 2001 was intense- a deep sense of sadness and loss of faith in the security of this country.  Living 15 miles away from NYC and having worked at the Twin Towers through November 2000, I had a connection to those events.  There was a hole created by Usama Bin Laden and his subordinates- time fills it in to an extent, but the crater's ridge will always remain visible.

Upon learning of his death today, I was mostly curious as to the details.  I certainly didn't feel patriotic or "proud to be an American."  I'm already proud of our history and its principles.  We live in an age of deconstructionism, pessimism and divisiveness.  The past ten years- where Bin Laden's legacy is its most concentrated-- only served to prove that fact.  Yes, we can find many faults in what we've done since September 11th, but do those mistakes negate the many great achievements from our larger history?  I've grown very tired of the negative piling-on. We can be a great people and we're also screwed up.  We're human-- get over it and move on.

I hope that, beyond the damage it would cause Al Qaeda, this day marks a psychological turning point for us- that we don't have to wonder if this person is still around to set in motion further attacks.  In terms of justice, killing him is a drop in the bucket towards putting things back into balance.  He's one guy- an innovator at his business, but no more important to his organization as Ray Kroc was to McDonald's.  The worldwide business of terrorism is not undone.

This doesn't mean we diminish the death of a criminal who caused great harm to citizens throughout the world.  We should take comfort in knowing that, despite many obstacles and leads going dead cold, we remained loyal to fulfilling the justice owed to this person.  Now, we should think about the bigger issue- does Bin Laden continue to define us or do we find a way to really bury the son-of-a-bitch by uniting to do bigger things again? 

7 comments:

Granny Annie said...

Adam, you are genius. This is a brilliant post yielding many truths and two great historical quotes created by you:

(1) "He's one guy- an innovator at his business, but no more important to his organization as Ray Kroc was to McDonald's. The worldwide business of terrorism is not undone."

(2) "Now, we should think about the bigger issue- does Bin Laden continue to define us or do we find a way to really bury the son-of-a-bitch by uniting to do bigger things again?"

Thanks for putting things in perspective!

TheJackSack said...

Hi Annie!

It's great to hear from you- I really appreciate your kind words. How are you? What's doing in this post-Jack Bauer world of yours?

Spencer said...

Wow, that was a VERY good post. It's things like this that make me feel bad for being 6 ten years ago. I have no memory of that day and can only imagine the pain and suffering you, the people here, and the rest of the entire world went through without ever really being the same afterwards.

With that, in my opinion it's unfair for me to say that we should all move on and put this crap behind us because the bastard's not worth it, but on the other hand- you said we're human. We're not just human, we're vulnerable and always will be. Nothing can change that.

But it's all war. Only difference is you might be sitting on a couch instead of having a gun. 9/11 was Osama and his people's way of fighting, and we fought back. There's always going to be loss, so we've gotta keep going. I personally believe that the worst has yet to come, maybe for our time it has, but I always think that one day something terrible will happen to someone or a place like the White House, my redneck knowledge aside. But no matter what everyone has to keep going, and with that, these will never win.

By the way it was Jack Bauer that did it.

Spencer said...

These terrorists*

Catherine said...

I was at Time Square when they annonced the Bin Laden's death, I've been there because I've just seen the Kiefer Sutherland's play in Broadway.

I' m a huge french fan of Kiefer and 24...and in the crowd some people said "Jack Bauer killed Bin Laden"

I though it was so great :fiction became reality: the real president is black as David Palmer and the real american heros, as jack Bauer, got the job done !!

The american dream is still alive !!

Hugs from France !

TheJackSack said...

Thank you, Catherine!

And thank you too, Spencer-- I really appreciate your kind words, brother.

Just noticed this post was made on this blog's 5 year anniversary. Crazy!

Anonymous said...

Adam you have such a way with words. 9/11 is a day that has been burned into my memory for a lifetime. While I don't celebrate his death, it does give us a bit of closure.

I guess most of us 24 fans pictured Jack Bauer as the shooter. In my mind I picture the scene where Jack goes Darth Vader on Logan, except it's Usama.

Sunny

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