Op-Ed: In Defense of the Revelry
Firefighters and soldiers among the crowd celebrating at the White House. / MATT MEDVED
By MATT MEDVED
I was a sophomore in high school when the planes hit the towers. I argued with my geometry teacher when she pretended that day was about trigonometry rather than history. I stormed out of the classroom and glued myself to a television. 9/11 was quite literally a day that changed my life, sparking an interest in journalism and international affairs that has shaped my career.
I was a first year graduate student when my father texted me that Obama had gotten Osama, fresh off final exams and returning from a music festival in Maryland. We rushed home to watch the President’s speech and then I sprinted to Union Station to barely catch the last train back to the White House. I had no money on my Metro card, but security didn’t care. They were just as excited as I was.
When I arrived at Farragut North, the chants were already audible from underground. I rushed to the surface and was confronted by a stream of revelers running towards the White House, waving flags and blasting Bruce Springsteen from handheld boomboxes. Naturally, I followed them to the throng.
Puns on Osama bin Laden's name were in vogue. / MATT MEDVED
While there, I documented an incredible outpouring of human emotion. From profanity laden USA chants and cleverly worded signs to cheering circles surrounding break-dancers, Americans expressed themselves in cathartic release. Although I arrived with intentions of only covering the reactions, I found the enthusiasm and rare sense of national unity infectious. Like Geraldo Rivera, whom I later encountered dazed on a park bench, I found myself unable to remain objectively detached from the joy.
There has been an understandable backlash against the footage from commentators who believe such euphoria is beneath us. I believe the celebrations are easy to lampoon from afar. Televised scenes of raucous crowds and indiscriminate jingoist chants call to mind the images of Palestinians celebrating in the days after 9/11 that sickened our national conscience. The revelryis easy to dismiss as frat-boy decadence, using the murder of 54-year-old Saudi national in Pakistan as a base excuse to party.
For many, footage of the celebrations recalled images of Palestinians celebrating 9/11. / MATT MEDVED
Certainly, some of my fellow revelers were just young students looking for a good time. But such a sweeping condemnation of all those who chose to celebrate on Sunday is an oversimplified dismissal of a diverse crowd not merely composed of college kids. I rubbed shoulders with firefighters and soldiers, politicos and housewives. I watched grandmothers attempt to use digital cameras to document the day while young parents with babies strapped to their backs braved the crowds to experience the event. Participants told stories of family and friends among the 9/11 victims to anyone who would listen. This was not simply a celebration of a death of a human being.
Revelers outside the White House. / MATT MEDVED
Osama bin Laden was a modern day bogeyman, a larger than life antagonist that seemed to defy both mortality and our nation’s intelligence and military might. To our generation, he was simply an archenemy in a way that no other dictator, murderer or world leader could match. Just because a perception can be countered with facts does not argue away the existence of that perception. As a reform Jew well aware of the casualty incongruities of the comparison, I wouldn’t hesitate to call him our generation’s Hitler figure.
I personally believed he had been dead for years, a victim of reported kidney disease. I was resigned to the fact that he had disappeared into the shadows and perished peacefully surrounded by supporters. Honestly, I was less concerned with the well being of the man as I was his legend. The specter of Osama bin Laden and his success in evading justice inspired our adversaries and would have long outlived his flesh and blood.
I lost no loved ones on 9/11, but the jubilation I felt at the news of his death had very little to do with exacting personal revenge through bloodshed. It was a mix of wonder and relief at the rewriting of a historical narrative that will long outlive the principal parties involved. The history books just changed. My joy was derived not from the extinguishment of bin Laden’s life, but from the subsequent legacy that will linger long after the headlines have changed too.
As a supporter of Barack Obama from his Senate campaign’s humble 2004 beginnings, I also felt a sense of vindication on a day that rewrote the narrative of his Presidency. While the actual strategic impact of bin Laden’s death is debatable, there is no question that Obama’s decision to undertake a risky and successful combat assault operation has lent validation to his oft-criticized national security credentials. It would be untrue to suggest that the effect of this upon Obama’s 2012 reelection bid was lost upon me. But on Sunday, my Republican friends were just as happy as I was.
A uniting factor in an otherwise diverse crowd was a desire for US troops to come home. / MATT MEDVED
On that brisk Washington night, I was well aware that our troops would still be in Afghanistan and Iraq the next day and likely years to come. I was aware that the videos of chanting crowds acting as though team America had won a national championship could incite backlash abroad. But reason did not and arguably should not dictate such days as these. Just as revelers took to the streets after World War II ended, Sunday night marked the symbolic conclusion of the primary goal of a lengthy and costly war. It was a day that seemed like it might never come. Perhaps some members of the crowd assembled to celebrate a murder. But I was there to celebrate history. I think that is a defensible sentiment.
