I'll Remember

There are certain days and events that are indelibly burned into my memory. I am old enough to remember the day that John F. Kenedy was killed. I am a child of the '60s and the Vietnam War. So, I remember when Robert Kennedy was killed and Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. When I was growing up the interuption of a TV program for a 'Special Report' immediately evoked fear of the most elemental kind. I know where I was when I heard about the Challenger explosion. I was driving home from Kenedy, Texas where I had been visiting my mom. But 9/11 was beyond all of these. I still remember the surreal silence of no planes flying above our house and comforting my daughter who was frightened and couldn't sleep in that silence.

I will now remember forever sitting in my den hearing President Obama announce that a great evil had been removed from the world. When the news organizations announced that he was going to address the nation on a national security concern, my past experience with this sort of thing tended to the terrified. My stomach sank in a way that is all too familiar. But then, the news reporters began to get hints of what it might be. Could it be that Osama Bin Laden was finally gone? It could.

There are those who say we should not rejoice at the death of another human being. I understand and respect their beliefs. But I'm maybe a little more hardhearted and practical than most. I'm a mother and I have experienced what I call the 'mother grizzly bear' reaction. As in if you threaten or hurt my child, watch out: I am going to come for you. America saw too many of its children die on September 11, 2001, killed by a man who joyfully took credit for the destruction he ordered and only regretted that the death toll wasn't higher. I also seriously doubt that this heinous criminal would have done anything other than fight to the death. I am grateful that we are spared trying him as a war criminal. I'm sorry, but there are those who deserve death for their crimes and Bin Laden freely and gladly claimed responsibility for his and didn't waste a single instant of regret for any of the innocent lives he took. Sometimes the only way to deal with pure evil is to eliminate it totally from the face of the earth and I believe that this man was nothing but evil. He chose his path years ago and the path he chose was a violent one. Justice was done tonight.

To the extraordinarily brave people who made this possible: Thank you. Thank you for your service to America and to the world. And to those who hate in the name of religion. Stop. Now. We must stop using violence and hatred to express our religious beliefs. Only then will we have peace.