The not so United States of America

For a brief moment last night, the days following 9/11 began to reappear before me.

During the post 9/11 days, people seemed to put our differences aside.

What a proud moment for our nation.

Despite the controversial presidential election of 2000, less than a year later we were all united in our disgust at Al Qaeda's actions.

And last night, as the news broke that we had finally found and killed Osama Bin Laden, there was a very short time we were together again.

Sure, it was odd to be uniting at the death of this evil figure. It was strange to see kids who couldn't have been over the age of 8 on Sept. 11, 2001 chanting "USA! USA! USA!"

But there was something right about it. Like finding out a criminal has been caught, tried and convicted for his crime.

And then by this morning, the unity was gone.

Fragmented by people who had to turn this into a political story: "Bush deserves the recognition for this, not Obama, because he started this war."

"Obama couldn't have done this, because he wouldn't want to hurt his brother or cousin in Pakistan."

"I thought they said Obama died. What's the big deal?"

And just to be fair, there were those on the left who disgusted me, criticizing former President Bush on a day when we should be patting him on the back for his role in helping make this happen.

Or my favorite...the conspiracy theorists.

There's one guy on a Hawkeye message board that I frequent that says Osama Bin Laden has been dead for a decade, and this is all a ruse so that we can invade Pakistan and continue bombing.

These actions are not being done by our government, he says, but by the shadow government who actually runs things. Of course he still believes Obama wasn't born in Hawaii.

Enough.

Enough of the "right wing nutjobs." Enough of the "communist lefties." Enough of the tin foil hat brigade.

Nearly 10 years ago, our country was forever changed by a group of young men who were inspired by Osama Bin Laden.

Last night, we finally got the inspirational leader behind the most heinous act of terrorism ever to occur on our shores.

And we couldn't even go 24 hours without it turning into a fight between ourselves. It's sad, really.

So I'm done talking about it. You all can fight until you're blue in the face. I'm going to quietly be proud of all the people who helped last night happen, and be thankful that they are there to protect me.

You can choose how you want to react.