A man can die but once.
--King Henry IV, Part II, Act III -- William Shakespeare
This is the blog title that I planned to use to write about the May 4, 1886 Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago. About its 125th anniversary reenactment. About the rededication of its statue in Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park. About its relevance today, specifically to the unions' reemergence in 2011. About Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan government union workers' protests.
About the whole world watching.
Instead, I am writing about Osama bin Laden's death.
And the whole world did watch ... kind of.
On Sunday, May 1 at approximately 9:30 PM Chicago time, President Barack Obama informed the nation that bin Laden was killed by US Navy Seals.
Almost 10 years after 9/11, after 3,000 plus US citizens died, after the fall of the World Trade Center, after using US planes as bombs, after masterminding these attacks...he was dead.
My only regret is that I had fallen into a deep sleep before hearing the President's announcement.
I blinked twice as I read the television news crawl when I woke up Monday morning: 'Osama bin Laden is dead.'
During the day I scrambled to read every tweet; 'like' every news link; read every online news media update; and view every photo or video.
As a nation, we watched the events of 9/11 live that morning. And while we did not see bin Laden's death live, we relived it through the media, particularly via the Internet.
Within the next few weeks, we will hear and read more details--or at least what we are allowed to know--and as the news settles, we will resettle into our daily routine.
And then what happens next? Do we just move on to deal with the next big event? What about our troops in Afghanistan? Do we continue to pursue Al-Qaida?
We have closed one chapter, but the story continues, and time will tell how it eventually ends.
But I do know this:
The whole world will be watching.
Filed under: Politics
