We received this video from White Rock Valley resident Maria Zsohar, who happened to be in our nation’s capital on Sunday night when President Obama revealed the news that Osama Bin Laden is dead. A crowd spontaneously gathered at the White House gates, and here’s what Zsohar had to say about the experience:
“I was struck by several things. You could really feel the heightened alert in the area. [I took] one picture where you can see the silhouettes of figures on top of the White House. There were a number of men in black on the roof, and security at every entrance had hands on their holsters. American flags were everywhere in the crowd. Maybe people in Washington, D.C., carry them around in their back pockets, just in case they need one.
“The crowd there was vast. I felt like the shots I saw on the news later didn’t really convey just how many people were there. It was crazy and kept getting more and more packed. People were running down the streets to get there, for hours. Everyone was so excited and jubilant, walking around grinning at everyone else. It seemed like a mix of college kids, older congressmen-like white guys in suits and sport coats, and me.
“What you see in the video went on for hours, and the honking went on all night long. People would finish one song, and then there would be cheering and another wave of songs would begin. It really was cool to just sit there, taking it in, and feeling like an American, surrounded by a few thousand other Americans.”
This story from The Atlantic had a somewhat disapproving view of the impromptu celebration near the White House: “I did not think the spontaneous party outside the White House was our finest hour. … there were no transcendent moments, no times when the crowd united to consider the greater significance of a free society’s battle with its enemies and all the costs and victories thereof. … as a public, we were loud and boorish and silly.”
Other news reports conveyed similar conflicted responses to the White House celebration, and Zsohar’s comments also reflected this sentiment: “I feel like an jerk for saying this, but I am not sure everyone there got the gravity of the situation, even though it was a celebration. I felt like some of them could have been at a frat party, or the Super Bowl or the Olympics, like this was just another occasion to have a beer and get on TV.”
For her, and for most of us who lived through the horror of 9/11, it was much more than that.
