On schedule, we left Omaha on Sunday, May 1 and arrived in Lincoln a few hours later. We were still in Lincoln on May 2 when the news broke that Osama bin Laden had been killed. I'm not sure if I really cared or if I had any strong feelings about it one way or the other, but just the same, it happened. They say that people always remember where they were when they first knew of important events. In November of 1963, I was in the gym locker room, changing out of my gym clothes when some guy came in and said "Did you hear, JFK has been shot". I can still see it in my minds eye as if it was yesterday. Was sitting in a bar in Brussels watching the moon landing in 1969 with the rest of the world and feeling kind of smug. For the World Trade Center disaster on 9/11/01, I was just beginning a group therapy session in the crisis unit of a state mental hospital I was working at, when my phone rang. It was Jackie calling to tell me to turn on the TV, because a plane had crashed into one of the buildings. As I and many of the patients sat mesmorized by the image, the second plane hit the second building, and we all realized at that point that something more was going on. When Barak Obama was elected president, we were watching the election results somewhere in Baja, Mexico. I think we were in some little bar in La Paz. Things get a little foggy as to the facts due to our alcohol consumption, and brains being fried by the heat. One thing I do remember, is that there were alot of Americans in the bar that night and that all of them did not share the excitement many of us did over this momentous event. I had an unsettling feeling over the negative energy going down there that night and remembered that scene in Rick's cafe in Casablanca where the German and French partisans and soldiers came close to battle singing their respective anthems. We had no Rick to keep the peace, but thankfully, all ended quietly for us Americans that night in La Paz.
I'm not sure the killing of bin Laden was all that memorable for me, in fact it was somewhat anti-climatic, occurring so many years after fact that it had lost its impact, so I took these pictures so that I would remember who I was and where I was when this happened.
A few days after the fact, we were spending the night in Broken Bow where I saw this patriotic tribute to those involved in the killing. I think many Midwesterners may take there matters more personally than we do back east, or maybe at least, those of us from NYC.
Addendum:
On August 6, 2011 a Chinnook helicopter carrying 20 + navy seals in addition too 11 other servicemen was shot down in Afganistan by a surface to air grenade. A lucky shot some military commentator said. All 31 aboard were killed. It was kind of ironic that these highly trained killing machines met their end in a tin can in the sky without firing a shot and without a chance in hell. Kind of like those 30+ middle aged tourists who died in the bus crash on the way to Atlantic City because their driver fell asleep at the wheel. You never know what will be but at least they were out there living on the edge and living their dream (the navy seals, that is). Which makes this sign doubly meaningful.
Pablo
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