Bin Laden is dead, but his effects on us aren’t

As a seventh grader in world history class, I had no idea that an ordinary day in September would end up being a momentous day that would lead to confusion and sadness. The images that came over the television screen are ones that will never be erased from my memory or the memory’s of anyone else who witnessed them that day.

The summer vacation that I enjoyed not two months before the attacks of 9/11 would mean little to me then but a great deal to me now. Like many college students my age the time between the attacks of 9/11 and now represent a period that is crucial to a developing mind.

Just as any other 12 or 13 year old in my class, the magnitude of the events that day were beyond my full comprehension. Learning the full meaning is something that would happen in the almost decade following and during the entire course of my undergraduate college career. That learning process introduced me to some of the world’s most evil things. Humans capable of murdering thousands of other humans, new forms of racism, and war were all things that I became familiar with after September 11, 2001.

There probably isn’t any good way to learn about the world’s greatest evils. There also isn’t a good or easy way to get rid of them for that matter; this is a lesson that is a product of the decade following 9/11. The evil that exists in the world, as I have come to learn about it, is something that can only cause us to fear if we allow it to manifest in the way that we think about and treat others.

The ugly products that come as a result of evil—death, war, and hatred—are all things that cannot be undone or unlearned easily. Just as learning about what truly defines evil is hard, dealing with how it affects us isn’t easy either.

At times like this, when President Obama declares that “justice has been done” it is easy to feel safer and more unified as a nation. It is also comforting to know that despite how evil some can be there are consequences waiting for those who are. Knowing that in the end good prevails and evil loses is something that may conjure up religious references or movies with super heroes but tonight the people whom remained tough, reasonable and whole heartedly good are the super heroes.

Grieving the loss of loved ones and life is no easy thing to overcome; knowing that the forces of evil have been lessened helps but still it isn’t the full remedy. Only by reducing the other forms of evil that have affected us as by products can we begin to recover from the effects of that very same evil in the first place.

As a nation of more than 300 million, we are incredibly strong and undefeatable when we stick together for the goal of a greater world. The quest for freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and love are all things that evil forces would love to take away but can’t. As long as we can remember that the latter three are what bind us together no force of evil will be able to pull us apart.

Just as the events of September 11, 2001 came as a surprise the events of Sunday night did as well. Both events came with a lesson, but more importantly Sunday’s news came with a lesson that is filled with hope for the better and justice for all.