The Death of Osama

Today in AS, we discussed thoughts about the recent headlines referring to Osama Bin Laden's death. After we all shared our thoughts and questions on notecards read aloud to the entire class, we realized there were a lot of mixed feelings about this assassination. A common emotion was fear of retaliation from Al Qaida. Others felt patriotic and relieved that the terrorist mastermind had finally been shut down.

Many also felt uncomfortable with celebrating someone's death, as many college students had done in front of the White House Sunday night after the news broke out (White House Celebration). This brought to the table a conflict of emotions between Americans. Should we feel proud to be responsible for the death of this man? Or should we be more respectful since we are dealing with the death of a man, as terrible as he was?