Undeniably and Reliably Dead

The news began to come in around 7:30 last night.  I was losing interest in a violent, depressing prison movie, so I picked up my smart phone to skim the latest on Twitter.  A few informed people, mostly news types, were just beginning to tweet about Osama bin Laden’s possible death.  Over the next half hour, the news on Twitter solidified.  I turned the DVD off and turned on MSNBC.  Donna joined me … she had been reading in another room to avoid the prison movie … and we settled in to wait for the president’s address.

Is jubilation inappropriate?  Immature?  Probably, but that’s how we felt, and that’s how we still feel this morning.  The sober angel sitting on my right shoulder says “Calm down, nothing much will change.”  The grinning devil on my left shoulder says “It’s morning in America again!”

We’re all going to remember last night.  These are some highlights that will stay in my memory:

• A tweet from someone in the stands at a Phillies game, describing thousands of smart phones lighting up in the stands as word began to spread.
• President Obama’s late night address to the nation.  Upon hearing how much Obama knew and how long he’d known it, realizing that through all the nastiness and backbiting he’s had to endure over the last month, he had his eyes on the prize the entire time.
• The whooshing sound of air going out of Republican sails.
• The utter perfidy of the Pakistanis.  They must have known.  For years.
• A feeling of relief, and great happiness, that our own special operations forces carried out the operation, and that it wasn’t the result of a drone attack.
• Another tweet: “Breaking. Terror alert level raised to ‘Confetti.'”
• The scenes of people assembling at the White House and at Ground Zero in New York City.
• An email this morning from an old, dear friend: “I nearly wept when I heard the news about bin Laden. It was like hearing Hitler had been killed.”

This morning I feel it as strongly as I felt it last night.  Things are going to change now, and change for the better.

Note: the title of this post comes from the Wizard of Oz song: Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead.