Elation over bin Laden's death gives way to reflection

By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Brian Ball, his wife Ashley and son Padraig were drawn to visit the Pentagon Memorial after hearing of Osama bin Laden's death. Brian's friend Daniel Caballero was killed when a plane struck the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

But for many — from frolicking college students who'd grown up amid the anxiety cast by bin Laden's shadow, to relatives of the nearly 3,000 slaughtered in the 9/11 attacks, for whom he was the sum of all evil — the moment was so sweet, so potent, that it even had the potential to change the meaning of Ground Zero itself.

The al-Qaeda leader's death at the hands of U.S. special forces in Pakistan also reaffirmed the notion that sooner or later, America usually gets its man — be it Iraq's Saddam Hussein (captured 2003, executed 2006), al-Qaeda's Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (captured 2003) and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (killed 2006), or the biggest catch of all.

"This sends a tremendous message to the bad guys in this world," said John Wroblewski of Jefferson, N.J., whose son J.T. joined the Marines after 9/11 — because of 9/11, his father emphasized — and died in Iraq in 2004. "If you're going to fool, or if you're going to mess with the United States, we're going to get you."

It was a day when New York City's Ground Zero, long a place of almost unmitigated sorrow, fear, anger and contention, finally became one of celebration. Mary Small, 65 — in New York from Lottsburg, Va., to see an opera — was moved to recite from another musical genre: "Ding dong, the witch is dead!"

For a nation frustrated by three wars, divided by domestic politics and dogged by hard economic times and $4-a-gallon gas, it was time to cheer: "USA! USA!"

The chant started outside the White House — or maybe Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center towers stood before Sept. 11, 2001 — and moved to New York's Times Square and the Boston Common, to college campuses and barrooms and ballparks across the land.

Often, it was raised first and loudest by the young — students, veterans, the newly employed or unemployed.

The chant spread to West Point, N.Y., home of the U.S. Military Academy. Informed by the head cadet of bin Laden's death — "We got him!" — thousands of cadets spilled into the yard and stayed there for a good 90 minutes past curfew. Some threw glow sticks into the air. One jumped on what looked like a pogo stick.

USA! USA! The chant echoed on the campuses of Penn State and Ohio State, and in Dearborn, Mich., a heavily Middle Eastern and Muslim city near Detroit, where a crowd waved American flags. Across town, some drivers honked their horns as they drove along a main street lined with Arab-American restaurants and stores.

In Shanksville, Pa., where a hijacked jet bound for Washington on 9/11 crashed after passengers fought back, visitors gathered at the fenced overlook that is a temporary memorial while a permanent one is built.

"I thought of Sept. 11 and the people lost," said Daniel Pyle, who stopped on his way to work. "I wanted to pay homage to the people lost that day. I think this brings a little bit of closure."

'A good day for America'

There were smaller, spontaneous gatherings across the nation. A few Idahoans made their way to the Capitol building in downtown Boise. South of Seattle, a small group waved flags and cheered on an I-5 overpass known as Freedom Bridge.

"I think we can all agree this is a good day for America," said President Obama, who green-lighted the operation that swooped down on bin Laden in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. He was shot to death after he allegedly resisted. At Ground Zero, a man held up a cardboard sign: "Obama 1, Osama 0."

Mark Lytle, a Bard College historian and co-author of the American history text Nation of Nations, called the raid "a shot in the arm for America's image" and a refreshing contrast to President Carter's failed attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980.

"Americans can take a certain comfort that we were able to do this," Lytle said, "especially in a period that's been pretty grim for the average citizen."

Contributing: Martha T. Moore in New York; Richard Wolf and Gregg Zoroya in Washington; Matt Manochio and Abbott Koloff, The Daily Record, Morris County, N.J.; Thane Grauel and Ned P. Rauch, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News; John A. Torres and J.D. Gallop, Florida Today; The Associated Press.