By Shannon McKenna
Round Table editor
Like a siren, the bell at Middletown Elementary School rings, signaling that the school day is about to begin. A small class of second-graders walks behind their teacher like a trail of ants. As they turn a corner toward the front of the building, the children witness chaos. An overwhelming crowd of parents is flooding the front lobby. One by one, the children are plucked out of line and dragged by the hand by their worried parents to their cars.
Second-grader Mckenzie Miskell looks around confused and scared. She doesn’t understand the gravity of what is going on around her, but she knows it’s something bad.
The date is Sept. 11, 2001.
At that same time, Middletown High School junior Allison Parker (now Grisso) leisurely walks into her English class. A few other students have already trickled in and had gathered around the television in teacher Noah Kady’s classroom. Just as she glances at the T.V., the second plane hit the towers. Blowing it off as some kind of joke or clip from a movie, she moves her stuff to her seat and gets relaxed and ready for class. As more students file in and see the news, she realizes that this is no joke and her thoughts turn to her father. Is he all right? Is he hurt? Knowing her dad works for the Department of Energy and occasionally has to go to the Pentagon, Kennedy begins to panic. The rest of her day is spent worrying.
Although the events of that fateful day occurred nearly 10 years ago, the memories have never really disappeared. Fueled by an ongoing war in Afghanistan and the impact of the Internet, the quest to find Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the group – Al Qaeda – responsible for the tragic collapse of the towers, has never faded.
So when President Barack Obama announced the death of Bin Laden, Middletown students responded like much of the rest of the country.
MHS alumni Kate Logan (‘04), remembers when the twin towers were hit and how people all over the United States were talking about it for months. But to her, the death of Osama isn’t as big of a deal as the attack on the towers.
“It’s just one man’s death and killing one person isn’t going to change things. If someone killed our president, would we fall to pieces? No. We would survive and keep moving forward. Plus, the media needs to stop harping on his death because the more we talk about it, it’s like we’re glorifying death, and someone still died,” said Logan.
Unlike Logan, MHS senior Bryan Goodyear thinks it’s great that Osama is no longer a threat to everyday Americans.
“We’ve waited nine to10 years for our military to find him and now the families of those lost on 9/11 can finally have peace. It’s not celebrating someone’s death, but celebrating peace for the families and progress in the war against terror,” said Goodyear.
When the events of 9/11 took place, people felt many emotions, including fear, anger, sadness, loss and devastation. The jumble of emotions has made it hard for many people to understand how they feel or what to believe now that Osama is dead.
”I have conflicted feelings about the entire event. In an ideal world, I’d have preferred if he were taken alive and put on trial for the world to see. I accept that if he resisted, it may have been necessary to use lethal force, but the fact that he was unarmed gives me some pause,” said MHS alumni Brian Pepper (’04). ”On the other hand, I wasn’t there, and few details have been released about how he resisted, so ultimately I can’t pass judgment.”
Although for many people the death of Osama was a psychological success in the war against terrorism, it doesn’t always bring a strong sense of pride. To some people it wasn’t anything more then the death of another human being on earth.
“I don’t feel a sense of justice or American pride over it, because nothing is going to ever make up for the evil that happened that day — especially not more death. I’m especially disturbed by some of the footage of the celebrations because I remember watching footage of Al Qaeda celebrating after 9/11, and it’s appalling to think that America is reacting the same way,” said MHS alumni Liane Schmersahl (’07).
Many other students feel the same way about how Americans are reacting to the death of Osama.
“I’m disturbed by the fact that people are celebrating it to such an extent. I believe that his death was justified and necessary to prevent more death and suffering, and I am glad that it has brought closure to those directly affected by 9/11, but he’s still a human being. I’ve never seen such a collective outpour of hate and celebration of death,” said MHS senior Megan Rigby.
Although Bin Laden was a difficult obstacle for the U.S. military to overcome, the long battle is not over yet, and some believe there is still more death and fighting to come.
“It’s only just a vicious cycle that will never end and Osama’s death is just the beginning of the cycle. I think that one death in a terrorist group will not end terror on innocent people,” said MHS junior Jessie Bunk.
When Bin Laden’s death was announced to the public, reactions spread like wildfire across the Internet from those in the United States and the Middle East.
“A quote that’s been going around the internet sums up my feelings nicely: ‘I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.’ It is falsely attributed to Mark Twain, but apparently it is actually a corruption of a Clarence Darrow quote,” said Pepper.
Just like when things are posted on the internet, they are never completely gone once they’re deleted. Although he is dead, the memory of Bin Laden and the tragic events and pain he inflicted on the United States will never truly be forgotten.
