Media Reports: Osama bin Laden is Dead

We are waiting for the President to speak, but multiple news outlets are reporting that Osama bin Laden is dead. I cannot explain exactly why I feel joyful about the death of this man who has been in hiding for years. I rationally know that this does not mean the end of terrorism. I am tempted to compare this to the death of Hitler or Mussolini, and for Americans of my generation, I think that's probably apt. It is certainly the applicable comparison for my children who watched the planes crash in to buildings as they sat in their high school classrooms. For their generation, that was THE defining event. I am certain that tomorrow, when emotion subsides and reason takes over, I will have more thoughtful things to say, but right now, this moment, I find myself wanting to wrap something red, white and blue around the mailbox. I am glad that we now have a date, 5-1-11, as a bookend to the gaping wound of 9-11-01. Thank God.