The Cost of Osama and the Benefit

Today has been a mish mash of emotions for me and I suppose for our nation.  Mostly my mind has been flooded by memories of the last ten years.  What we have lost thanks to Osama Bin Laden.  Those losses amount to the cost to take out Osama.   When do we get our young people back?  When do they get their arms and legs back?  When do we get our jounalists back, the ones who placed themselves in harms way without so much as a pen knife  to protect themselves?  When do we get Peter Jennings back?  He was a casualty too.  When do we get our economy back?  I knew people who had  to change careers because of 9-11.  People whose industries were devasted.  I know people who had to go back to work because their retirement funds were destroyed.  People who had to postpone retirement for the same reason.  I watched as young people bury their friends when they should have been partying with them.  I saw young people age five years in a week as they sought to understand their world.  People who slept through social studies had to grasp the meaning of social studies.  When do we get the last ten years back?  When do we get our innnocence back? Our sense of security?  Can Presidents Bush and Obama have back the respect that is do to anyone who serves as Chief Magistrate?  Can the Dixie Chicks and others have their careers back?  I saw kids go to war when they should have gone to college.   It infuriates me when I hear that we didn't pay a tax for these wars, for the pursuit of this mass murderer.  We have paid with a portion of livelihoods and our lives.  Is that not tax enough?  The total cost can never be measured. 
     So was there a benefit? All of the above.  Most of us became willing to sacrifice whatever it took for as long as it took for our values, our campatriots, and the memory of those lost.  I am proud of our young people who voluntarily sacrificed for our country.  I am grateful for all of those who love the nation and expressed  that love in 300 million different ways.  We are stronger because of 9-11, not weaker.  Today at work I saw little kids.  I hope they will not have to deal with an Osama.  Yet, I reality I know they  most likely will.  I think we have given them an example and the resources to do  so.  Our Republic endures!  We face our challenges and overcome them.  Always.

Enoch