No Time to Party

So Osama Bin Laden is dead. Finally, after 10 years the families of everyone who died on 9/11 can feel a sense of justice and begin to heal. That’s who I thought about when I heard the news, the over 3,000 victims and their families.

I felt no need to go out and celebrate. I saw the celebrations on television and in Boston, mostly by young people; who weren’t even old enough to drive at that time. I was shocked and embarrassed all at the same time, why? Because Bin Laden’s death should not be a time to crack open a bottle of the bubbly and dance in the streets.

Yes, I’m glad they got him. I wish they could have taken him alive, I would have enjoyed this murdering bastard squirming in an American courtroom and being sent to an American jail where he wouldn’t last 10 minutes.

But that’s the anger in me talking. Instead I see his death as a time for reflection of how important we are to each other and how important it is to cherish each other. That’s what made me think of the families of 9/11 and what they must continue to endure, the loss of a loved one. On that day, people lost mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, children and friends. Remember the magazine cover a few months after the attack that showed the children of 9/11. These kids will never know their fathers; they are the ones we should be thinking about.

I also think of the police and firefighters who ran unselfishly into the towers that day, and I think of those who didn’t make it out. I didn’t know anyone who died on 9/11, but I have many friends who lost someone that day. I think about them and what they have lost, and I also know that they think about all of this like one of the wives of one of the pilots said in the Globe that Bin Laden’s death changes nothing, “the families of 9/11 still have an empty seat at the table,” she said. And that’s my point it changes nothing. 3000 people are gone. We will still have those images of the Towers crumbling, the Pentagon with a gash in its side and the heroes of the plane that crashed in Shanksville, PA. And lest we forget, Al-Qaeda is still out there. That isn’t meant to scare anyone; it just is what it is.

The other reason I will not be out celebrating Bin-Laden’s death is because I wouldn’t waste a can of cheap beer let alone a bottle of champagne toasting his death. Why would I? He’s not worth it. It makes him more important than he really is. He was infamous but important. Yeah, to catch that’s about it, and we all knew he’d go out like this. There was no way he was going to ever stand trial for his crimes, and besides, dancing in the streets makes us no better than those men, women, and children, in the Middle East who danced in the streets when word spread of 9/11. Instead we need to think of the families, theirs, ours, and ourselves.