Obama got Osama and other thoughts

Last night US forces found and killed terrorist Osama Bin Laden. The orders were to kill, not capture the Saudi-mastermind of 9-11 and they accomplished their mission.

We all remember where were were on September 11, 2001. I was between Mr. Mauer and Ms. Thole's classrooms at West High when Jon Richardson told me about a "plane or chopper or something" that hit into the twin towers.

After enduring algebra our more reasonable teachers let us watch the event unfold on TV for a while before trying to get us back to business.

By 2001 I already knew I wanted to be a sports writer, but it was the events of Sept. 11 that taught me I wanted to be a columnist. I can't remember the name of the story I wrote but I remember how some of it went. I remember real emotion while I wrote it and I really remember how person after person came up to me to compliment it and tell me it made them emotional in one way or the other.

I didn't know it then, but their reactions had little to do with my prose or skill. The best columnists are really the people with the best material who get out of the way and let the situation speak for itself. They just guide it along.

We were all emotional in 9-11-01. Some of us were scared, others were sad and I think most were angry. How could this happen here? In America?

While we mourned, half a world away a lanky Saudi smiled, his plan went pretty well.

I don't know if we'll ever know the solider who put the bullet in Osama Bin Laden's head, but I hope before Bin Laden died that something I wrote that day came true. I hope that before we ended his life, he saw in the eyes of that soldier "a reflection of each human being whose life was prematurely ended at their hands."

I don't support capital punishment most of the time. I'm not even sure it was right to allow this man martyrdom. But I know that President Barrack Obama acted swiftly and rightly to protect this country and bring justice to a tragic situation.

This won't end anything, or change much. It raises more questions about our "ally" Pakistan than it answers. There is only one less terrorist in the world today than there was yesterday and his influence had waned considerably. But that wasn't the point.

President Bush spoke for the nation and said we would go to the ends of the earth to find and bring to justice those responsible for that attack. President Obama made it happen.

Thank you Mr. President, and well done to you and your team.

These blogs sadly don't get the time and attention that I used to put into columns when I worked at a newspaper, but if I were writing one today, I think the material speaks for itself.

I don't know exactly what I would say but it would probably end with something like this.

"For every enemy of freedom that our soldiers have silenced in attrition for what happened to our nation, for every fallen or deposed dictator we've eliminated, there was still a hole in our hearts. We were making someone pay for the crime, but it wasn't the same. We were taking out foot soldiers, not their commanders.

Now we have justice. Now we have our revenge. The hole in our heart will always be there, irreparable damage to our strength in a reminder that we're not untouchable. But we take can take solace now in the knowing that the one who wounded us will wound no no one else. Bin Laden is dead, and while there is still much work to do, justice has been done.