One Less Boogie Man

When I heard at 10pm on a Sunday night that the POTUS would be addressing the nation in 30 minutes I knew it had to be something huge. What news cycle involved a 10:30 PM address? Exactly none.The next hour and some minutes of media speculation was painful. What would the big announcement be? Was it a national security emergency? It was mind numbing. What would I be telling my students about tomorrow? I was communicating with several teachers through social networks...all of us trying to limit our speculation as to what the news might be.

When the news finally came, I was reminded of a statement I had made to a group of my Civics students this past Friday. After a discussion on terrorism (which seems to regularly be on their mind), I had suggested that I felt that we would soon be told that Osama Bin Laden was no longer alive. I was, of course, basing this comment on the fact that he had been in such deep seclusion for quite some time. I was founding it on the point that he was no longer leaking video statements to the press. I had no idea that less than 72 hours later that announcement would be made. I watched in awe as our President made it known "officially" that our boogie man of the past decade was no more. I will not recount the statements of the President as he can relay the information far more eloquently than I. For those remarks one should watch the video I have included in this post from our Commander in Chief.

Let May 01, 2011 mark the date when President Obama gave the order and successfully accomplished something that the past two could not. Those who revel this event, as I believe it, do not do so for the death of a human being but rather for the ease of mind that a nearly supernaturally elusive figure has been captured and killed. Will this end the terrorist threats of Al Qaeda? Hardly. It will, however, show that this America with this American President is one that is capable of accomplishing enormous things. It may or may not be coincidental that May 01, 1945 marked the day that another boogie man, Adolph Hitler, was declared dead. May 1st is apparently an unlucky day for mass murderers.