America’s ability to unify after a major event never ceases to amaze me.
America united in its sorrow after the events of 9/11. The attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., cost the U.S. thousands of lives, yet it also brought an entire nation together under a single banner. Campaigns were started, people actually learned our national anthem, and a general, “Don’t mess with America” attitude was adopted.
Now we have another chance and only one person had to die.
Osama bin Laden, the man who gloated after the attacks, the man many recognized as the face of terrorism, the “Greatest Player of Hide-and-Seek Ever” has been brought down. The founder of al-Qaeda was killed by an Obama-ordered U.S. operation.
This will not end the War on Terror. The recession will not end. Gas prices will still be as high as ever. Our troops will still be stationed in various places far away from loved ones. A decade of violence ending with the death of one man who isn’t Hitler, Skeletor or Voldemort only happens in movies.
What this can and should to is unify America. We have an opportunity to join again, hand-in-hand, beside each other and celebrate a victory. This was a victory and one the American people have a right to celebrate. We should do so together.
President Obama said it best, “Justice has been done.” For the first time in a while America has a victory over an unambiguously bad person. Start up the campaigns again. Grab a flag. Shout it from the rooftops: “I am an American.”
The country should unify in the face of victory as it did in the face of tragedy. Bringing the country together is exactly what Obama needed to do in the face of Donald Trump.
Just remember this was a small victory in an otherwise long and painful war.