How Osama Changed America

I had to write this as a direct dissent from an article I read in the the CNN Opinion section.


The writer says,

"... utterly disregarding his own safety. ..."

Dry words, on paper or on a glowing computer screen. Yet one of the grand and humbling truths about life in the United States is that there somehow has never been a shortage of those whose actions time after time reflect those words to the letter. Bin Laden managed to change a lot of little things -- trifling, really -- in American life, but he couldn't change that.

What has regrettably changed in the US is our heightened fear of the “other” and our move away from truly espousing freedom of religion to an environment where worshippers fight public backlash to build a place of worship anywhere. We now live in a society where the government has admitted to wide-spread incidences of it spying on its citizens without cause. Where assignation orders are placed on the heads of citizens and non-citizens alike. Where our basic tenant against unlawful search and seizure has been forfeited. We live in a country where, once again, the president can order an assassination and where you and I can be incarcerated merely for whom we associate with. We believe that we can bring peace, democracy and our ideals at the barrel of a gun.

One of Osama’s goals was to destroy our way of life but this he could not achieve. It may not be necessary though since we seem intent on doing it ourselves.

The author of the article says that these changes are “trifling”. Somehow I think we’ve lost something profound.