Tucker residents reacted today to the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden with very mixed emotions. Most seemed to feel they were left with more questions than answers.
“I’m certainly glad he’s gone, but in a way I kind of wish they’d taken him alive,” said Livsey parent Anna Hurlebaus. Her fears, she said, have not been quelled. “He’s gone, but who’s going to replace him?”
“It’s a wait-and-see kind of feeling,” added fellow Livsey parent Adam Weathersby. “You don’t know what happens next.”
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Perhaps the greatest indication of the heightened vigilance, even wariness, of the day was the conspicuously guarded reaction from our local service men and women. Police, fire, and military personnel were all reluctant to share any personal feelings on the matter. Person after person refused to go on record. Calls to local Army and police public relations offices had not been returned at the time of publication.
Some have found the mystery surrounding the events and the reasons given for this mystery unsatisfactory.
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Karim Hameed, a local recording artist from neighboring Stone Mountain, questioned the at-sea burial. Hameed, who was raised Muslim, acknowledged that it is true that Islam calls for burial within 24 hours of death, but “in Islam, you put them in the ground,” he said, and not in the ocean. Hameed added that Saddam Hussein’s sons were not afforded a speedy burial in Iraq and questioned why bin Laden, the greatest enemy of the United States, would be given greater respect in death than Hussein’s sons.
“He wasn’t the only conspirer,” Hameed added. “I don’t think people should just focus on one man.” He went on to say bin Laden “got what he had coming,” but didn’t think one man’s death would have any real effect on the world. “I’m more concerned with the economy,” he said.
