This Was a Heck of a Week

As some of you may have heard, President Barack Obama paid a visit to my fair city yesterday at Ground Zero to honor the memory of the victims of the terrorist attack on 9/11.  This visit was especially significant because, as I am sure everyone across the globe is aware by now, on Sunday Navy SEAL forces found and eradicated Osama bin Laden.  Below is one of the most famous photographs to come from the event, the president and his staff in the situation room watching the mission.  This particular photo was taken by Pete Souza (the White House photographer) and I specifically got it from The Huffington Post.

I work a few blocks from the Ground Zero site but was unable to go and see the president speak as I was working at the time.  I would have liked to have had the opportunity to go and be a part of that crowd but work must come first.

I've been somewhat confused for the past several days and not really sure how I am supposed to feel.  On the one hand, our public enemy #1 is now gone and we have gathered an overabundance of intelligence information that will help keep our nation safe and secure.  On the other hand, is it ever really okay to celebrate the death of a person, no matter how evil?  But on the third hand are there just some people who provide no value and use a surfeit of resources who serve no purpose in this life?  And even still, on the fourth hand my sense of patriotism pushes me to celebrate because of the benefit to our country and the closure this brings to all of those who lost loved ones to terror attacks those many years ago.  But on the fifth hand, as a pregnant woman I can't help but wonder if Osama has a mother that is mourning his loss right now.  I have to stop myself here though because I have long since run out of hands and am pushing into Vishnu-like territory.

No matter what, this has been an incredible couple of weeks, historically speaking!  Prince William married Kate and Osama bin Laden was taken out by Navy SEALs.  This is going to be one of those weeks you tell your kids about when they get into the more advanced history classes in high school, kind of the same way everyone knows where they were when Princess Di passed away or when JFK was assassinated.