Some pretty big stuff went down last night - President Obama announced that a team of Navy Seals performed an operation that killed the top most wanted terrorist in the world - Osama bin Laden.
The hardcore partiers in Knox and Hartwick Towers, always looking for an excuse to rage, immediately started drinking, blaring "Born in the U.S.A." and "Proud to be an American," and chanting USA while waving American flags out their windows. Celebrations continued into the early hours of the morning, when this front page of the Diamondback hit the newspaper stands.
I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Obviously this was something that needed to be done, and it brings a sense of closure and healing to the gaping wound that America was left with after September 11th. At the same time, it feels weird to celebrate someone's death to me - even someone as terrible as bin Laden was. It also feels like killing bin Laden could be the spark that ignites a flame inside of all of the terrorists out there in the world. Sure, bin Laden was their leader, but that doesn't mean they can't still do terrible things without him. And it seems like killing someone's leader is a surefire way to get them to hate you even more than they already do...
At the same time, it gives me a renewed faith in America and what the military and government can do - and I can't lie...I listened to a playlist of patriotic songs for the next few days :) clearly I'm a little bit confused.
In my history class, my professor raised the question of why has the assassination of Osama bin Laden has sparked such celebration for college students in particular. We discussed it in class, but that same day this article was the headline on CNN.com. It made the whole "celebrating in the street" thing seem a little bit more justified to me.
okay, I think that was enough rambling from me...
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