HARLAN RICHARDS
September 5, 2017

Why Do We Celebrate 9/11?

Why do we celebrate the most important (and successful) day in Osama bin Laden's life? It makes no sense to me. We should be celebrating May 1, 2011, the day the US Navy Seal Team killed bin Laden.

I think we have it backwards. Sept. 11th was a bad day for the US. Our inept national security apparatus allowed numerous terrorists to hijack planes and fly them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, causing them to collapse. That's not something we should be honoring every year.

Some folks might argue that we're not honoring bin Laden but rather the Americans who lost their lives that day. But that's not what we should be doing. We have a National Crime Victims' Rights Week every April. That's when we should be remembering the victims of terrorist acts. We should honor 9/11 victims, Sandy Hook victims, Oklahoma Federal Building victims, and all the other victims of terrorists on US soil during the week set aside for it.

We should celebrate bin Laden's death every May Day, the same way we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Setting aside the day of bin Laden's greatest terrorist feat as a day of remembrance is illogical. Let's light fireworks every May Day and reaffirm our determination to wipe out terrorists, no matter who they are or where they are from. Only in this manner can we protect the freedom we treasure.

By the way, has anybody noticed the significance of May Day? When bin Laden attacked on 9/11, it was because 9/11 is the number used for emergencies in the US. May Day, which is May 1st, the day bin Laden was killed, is an international distress call. I think Obama planned it that way as a sort of poetic justice. The man who attacked us on 9/11 because it is our emergency phone number was killed on May Day, the international distress signal. Way to go, Obama!