Death of Osama bin Laden

My first reaction was skepticism. Did our guys really get him? Is this a political stunt? As the coverage mounted, it started to dawn on me that the monster that had haunted the dreams of every American since 9/11/01 was actually dead. I didn't feel elated, but I was pleased. This must have been how it felt to get the news that Hitler was dead. I had students who did not even know who he was. They asked why people were celebrating his death. I tried to explain to them what it had been like for those of us who remember 9/11. To see people leap to their death to avoid burning alive. To watch helplessly, as your country is attacked. To think about the everyday people on that flight who decided to give up the rest of their lives for their country and countrymen. The fear that gripped the nation in the following weeks, wondering when and where the next attack would come. I don't think I can ever properly communicate those experiences. I don't think anyone can. In the end, the man who billed himself as the great leader of the war against "The Great Satan" died a coward hiding behind his wife as our soldiers sought vengeance and justice for their slain countrymen. A fitting end. A small part of the evil that was in the world is now gone. And the world is a better place for it.

The Man in the Arena

I have always been fond of a certain quote by Theodore Roosevelt often referred to as "The Man in the Arena":

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

Around this time last year, I was given an opportunity which put me in a position to make choice. I was given a choice whether to embark on a new adventure in my career, or to stay where I was. This was a very difficult decision for me, because I very much enjoyed the place I was in in my career and was very comfortable with it. But my mind kept coming back to this quote. I really believe in its message. If I was to try to personify what I believed in, I would have to become "the man in the arena", and step out of my comfort zone. This type of thinking has guided my actions in the past as well; the idea that if you don't try, you will never know if you can do it. This was the thought that led me to join the Corps of Cadets when I was in college. I don't know yet whether my efforts now will end in victory or defeat, but at least I know my place will never be with those "cold and timid souls" who know neither.