The first that I'd found out about what happened, though I didn't recognize it as such, was by someone celebrating.
I was watching a movie on the dvr last night when, with about twenty minutes left in the film I heard a number of firecrackers, including a couple of loud ones, go off somewhere in the neighborhood. I remember thinking to myself "Why's some asshole doing that at this time of night?". Then after the movie finished, I did some channel surfing and the first thing I saw on NBC was the news, about a twenty minutes before the President came on air.
As for the celebrating, Richard Roeper made some
good points about it today, particularly the last one, since the crowd I saw in front of the White House was mostly young:
Too soon?
Before Obama even addressed the nation, the jokesters were already cracking wise. I saw a dozen variations on the “Trump wants to see the death certificate” routine.
Some celebrities were somber. Others immediately went for the humor.
Neil Patrick Harris: “Everyone is sitting around my living room, mouth agape. Thank you, Mr. President, for such an eloquent speech.”
Lady Gaga: “What a historical moment in the fight against hatred.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger: “Wherever you are, take a minute to say thank you to one of the brave heroes who serve our country.”
Jimmy Kimmel: “I really hope bin Laden didn’t get reincarnated as one of Mariah Carey’s babies.”
Patton Oswalt: “No matter how collected Obama is during his speech, he’s hearing LL Cool J’s ‘Mama Said Knock You Out’ blasting in his head.”
Jimmy Fallon: “Got bin Laden AND interrupted ‘Celebrity Apprentice’? Win for Obama all around.”
Too soon to make jokes? Nah. It doesn’t indicate any disrespect for the families who lost loved ones to bin Laden’s murderous ways. There’s a big difference between making jokes right after 9/11 and cracking snarky about bin Laden’s demise.
Same thing with the Sunday night rallies. The dancing and singing and chanting — how does that play around the world? Won’t that further incite our enemies who at that very moment were mourning bin Laden’s death?
Consider the 20-year-old college student who was whooping it up on Sunday night. In 2001, he was the 21st century equivalent of a 10-year-old who learned Hitler was the very definition of evil in the 1940s. For him, bin Laden was the real-world boogieman — the face of terrorism.
That he’d want to rush into the night to join with others celebrating the demise of that devil is perfectly understandable.
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