Osama Bin Laden

I fell asleep on the couch after finishing St. Anthony's and I felt pretty beat.

I woke up around 1 a.m. on the couch and my phone was lit up. Tweets, texts and voicemails: Osama Bin Laden is dead.

This is another one of those, "Where were you when..." moments (by the way, how did you find out?)

Oh to have been in a newsroom at that moment, that historic moment when the bulletins crossed the wire. I was up until 3 in the morning watching the impromptu crowds spilling out into the streets, watching the tweets, watching the wall-to-wall coverage. (You can take the girl out of journalism but you can't take the journalism out of the girl.)

I can't ignore the symbolism of the weekend. I find it amazing that Osama Bin Laden's death was announced on the very same day as Hitler's death was announced, in 1945. It also came on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day, a very solemn day in which the entire country mourns. Two terrorists, two deaths. Declared on the same day.

I admit I am somewhat conflicted inside. I would never want to celebrate the death of anyone, and the word "celebrate" is definitely the wrong word for how I feel.

I'm not sure if there is a word.

But there is an evil man who ordered death upon thousands of Americans, thousands of people. I lived in New York on September 11th and I know what that was like. The fear. The sadness.

I know the terror of not knowing what will happen next and how especially terrorizing it is when the people who are inciting the fear do not not have any rules or boundaries, who have no problem with the killing of families, children included and he was one of those people. And now he is gone. Maybe relief is the word?

No, it doesn't make the loss of the family and friends on September 11th any less real, but as the 10 year mark of 9/11 approaches, I do believe it sends a powerful message to those who terrorize our country. And it makes this year's 10 year mark of 9/11 different than it would have otherwise been without this news.

I'll never forget that day and I'll not forget this one either.

Sure some people will think that it took this long for this to happen. But I like to think, even if it takes 10 years, you will not get away with it.

I am proud of our country's resolve.

I am fearful for retaliation. I hope it won't happen. But I can't imagine that it won't. I pray for the vigilance and safety of our country.

And by the way, I never have believed and still don't believe for a second that Pakistan did not know where he was, sitting pretty in a mansion in a populated city as opposed to hiding out in the caves.

I am proud of my brother-in-law, who is in Afghanistan right now, who has been there for only two weeks now and who has at least 6 months more. I wonder what it is like right now, what the atmosphere is like, is this a morale boost? Are things heating up even more and become more tense?

I am proud of our troops and I am scared for them.

Today and every day, keep the families and troops who have died at the hands of Bin Laden and Al Qaida in your thoughts. And pray for the safety of our country moving forward, especially for all those who continue to fight terror at this very moment.

It is not over yet.