By lex, on May 3rd, 2011
One of our newest citizens has taken to the pages of the UK Guardian to express her umbrage at the celebrations of a few rowdy New Yorkers (is there any other kind?) on Sunday evening:
It didn’t take 10 minutes for the frat party atmosphere to sicken me. Olympic-style chants of “USA! USA!” I could just about take as a freshly minted American, as of Friday. But “Fuck Osama! Ole ole ole!” crushed any ambition of dignity for the thousands killed, many of whom had jumped hundreds of storeys to their deaths, their bodies shattered to pieces close to where we stood.
Some may say that there is dignity in death, but tell that to the falling man and in any case the victims of 9/11 are past the need for dignity. As for those left behind, solemn, candlelight vigils at the news of a mass murderer coming to justice just isn’t our style, deary. Nor is considered entirely kosher – forgive me, halal – for a citizen of four day’s time to take to the foreign press to bash her new compatriots.
After 9/11, our tears of loss turned to anger, and our anger to determination. Sunday’s spontaneous demonstrations at the White House, at the nation’s universities, and yes – at Ground Zero – reflected our relief and joy that an evil man responsible for the deaths of 3000 of our citizens – and many thousand Muslims as well – was put down.
Some of the “frat boys” you so cordially loathe have no memory of a time when their nation was not at war, and Osama bin Laden was the father of all that. That may not be novel in the Dar es-Salam, but it’s new to the experience of this part of the Dar al-Harb. He’s gone, and we are exuberantly pleased.
And so I have to ask, given your sensitivities: Are you quite certain you came to the right place?
