I just perused this sobering Washington Post column by Petula Dvorak, who finds the street-party jubilation over the announcement of America's killing of Osama bin Laden "almost vulgar"...
Because meanwhile, across the river, at the Pentagon, in the ghostly quiet of lights at the 9/11 memorial, a military veteran silently wept.
...When I saw that folks were celebrating in the streets at the news of bin Laden's death, my first reaction was a cringe. Remember how we all felt watching videos of those al-Qaeda guys dancing on September 11, 2001? [Petula Dvorak, "Complications After a Night of Jubilation," Washington Post, 2011.05.02]
Dvorak then heads out to the celebrations and finds young college students celebrating the demise of their generation's boogeyman. Indeed, how can we expect young people not to celebrate the destruction of their very real Freddy Krueger? As Dvorak says, interpreting bin Laden's death is complicated.
On a much lighter note, Dvorak's column bears an ad with the image of the next boogeyman that will terrorize America's streets: a dude wearing the latest Brooks Brothers summer fashion:
Really? Didn't Andy Bernard wear this same outfit on The Office?
I had a bit of the same reaction on the rather unseemly display. Part of that was due to ABC (at least) running the same bit of video over and over again while saying it was "live" from the street in front of the White House.
As for fashion, blue jeans are still my choice with "western" shirts. I got Harpers Bazaar while thinking it was the old Harper's Magazine. The fashion crap in there is more like circus attire. Nearly completely absurd nonsense.
One of the things missing in education is inculcation of a health disregard for media hype and nonsense fueled by corporate conscienceless greed.
If there was an odd residential compound in Madison's residential area, we would be gawking, Cory might post pictures, there would be chatter and speculation. Something is off.