Community Corner

Bin Laden's Death Brings About Memories of September 11, Relief from Community and Skepticism About the Future

The community reacts to the news.

My neighbor read the from the front porch of his house this morning, binoculars focused on the New Haven Register newspaper box across the street. It's likely that he'll remember how he learned the news of Bin Laden's death for years to come.

This morning at groups gathered to share their stories about when they heard the news, to talk about the monumental moment and to remember the day that started the hunt 10 years ago.

Suzan York, a former New York City resident who lived on Second Avenue and 86th Street during the September 11, 2001 attacks, was unaware that Bin Laden had been killed. She read the news and wide-eyed shook her head in disbelief.

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Hearing this morning’s news was similar to the way she learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center towers. Getting her morning coffee on September 11 she told her barista, who she knew by first name, “Mario, trust me, the World Trade Center didn’t collapse.”

This morning after reading the headlines in the New Haven Register, York said, “This is great, if you want to call death great, but this is not the solution.”

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Still unable to look at a plane and not think about it flying into a building, York who is a psychotherapist and self-proclaimed Buddhist said she marched against the war during Vietnam and doesn’t agree with an eye for an eye. “We have to change our conscious,” she said. “What’s the point of killing more people?”

She reflected, “I think it’s a very confusing world. The people who are in Al Queda are utterly disenfranchised… they are probably ill.” Grabbing the newspaper and pointing to Bin Laden’s photo she said, “They become victims of a monster like this. That doesn’t mean there are not more monsters just because he’s gone.”

Standing next to her, Peter Love a Guilford resident said, “It’s just fantastic. Every so often we get ours; they get theirs.” When asked where he was when heard the news and what he did, Love said he was watching TV last night. “I said my prayers of thanks,” recalled Love. “I was near ecstasy. If I had been anymore excited about it, I could have cried but I didn’t cry, I was just praying.”

Branford residents and coffee shop frequenters Joe Marturano, Chuck Browder and Bob Ripoll gathered at a table with the newspaper spread out and were discussing their opinions on the news.

Browder said he felt relief. “Good riddens to him,” he said. Ripoll chimed in, “The hunt is now complete. We got our man… this chapter’s closed but there’s more to close.” Marturano added, “It’s not over yet. They have a few more guys left to catch.”

Browder called today’s news historic. Comparing it to the news of September 11 he said, “That one was shock; this one is elation.” He continued, “I am happy for a lot of people–the families that went through the tragedy; happy for the troops; happy for the intelligence community. It’s a huge victory.”

The death of Bin Laden, added Ripoll, sends a message to the world. “Don’t threat on us,” he said. “Just don’t threat on us.”

The juxtaposition of the news 10 years ago when America was first attacked to that of today’s headlines has been interesting. The death of Bin Laden, for so many, has brought memories racing back of the day our society came to a standstill. One woman, who asked not to be named, said she lived one block from the World Trade Center and the tragedy was still so strong for her, she could barely speak of it today. Explaining that the events of September 11 caused her to relocate from New York to Branford, she had one word this morning: “relief.”

I was a freshman in college on September 11, taking my first journalism course, Introduction to Mass Media at Temple University in Philadelphia when I learned of the news of the terrorists’ attacks. My professor was teaching about media-caused hysteria and had an old recording of Orsen Welles’ broadcast of H.G. Wells “War of the Worlds" playing that fateful morning. He stopped the radio broadcast just as the little green men from Mars were landing on our soil and left the classroom to speak to a colleague. He came back and flipped on the television just in time for us to see the first tower engulfed in flames and smoke. He told us the World Trade Center had been struck by a plane and we could go back to the dorms if we wanted. The class sat in disbelief. Was this another lesson in media hysteria? After explaining that we were, in fact, witnessing an attack on the US, I left the classroom to spend the rest of the day watching our history change forever.

This morning I learned of the news (I know late for a journalist) as I was walking my dogs; my mom called to tell me. I rounded the block and saw the same New Haven Register newspaper box my neighbor was spying on with binoculars. I read the headline and then got to work.

What are your stories about then and now? How will you remember today’s news?


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