"Why I'm proud to be an American today"

Mia writes: It’s the morning after an incredible 72 hours. Who could have thought anything would have knocked The Wedding off the front page and our minds. Enter Osama. Or rather, exit.

I’ve been interested to note very little footage of September 11 – particularly the planes smashing into the buildings – has been used to illustrate the news of Bid Laden’s death.

Instead, there has been a lot of coverage of wild scenes of jubilation, particularly in Washington and New York. I can’t quite imagine similar scenes in Australia but we’ve never been able to compare our levels of patriotism to America. I’ve also been interested to note many of those celebrating seem quite young….they would have been kids on September 11, 2001.

Today, we’re going to hear from an American woman living in Australia for a sense of what this news has meant for her. Seema writes….
“I’m proud to be American today. This is a sentiment that I have seldom felt in the past decade. The pride was overpowering on September 11, 2001, for a few months following that day, when my vote counted to elect Barack Obama as the leader of my country, and when he took the lead at the Oval Office a few months later. But other than those moments, my feelings for America have been mixed at best, muddled in a combination of shame, anger, disbelief, sadness, regret, compassion and helplessness. But today – today I feel pride.

I was in my final year of high school the morning that my country was attacked by what came to be known as Al Qaeda, and, like every American, I watched repeated footage of hijacked planes flying into New York’s World Trade Centre, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania, and I silently wept for the horror that had been inflicted on my country. My brother was interviewing for jobs in New York at the time, so after I received a call that he was not harmed, my thoughts turned to the thousands of loved ones who would not receive the same good news. I thought of the banker’s daughters who would never get to have their father walk them down the aisle. I thought of the wife of the man who had deemed he would rather die by gravity than by fire, and subsequently jumped from the 93rd floor from which he was working. I thought of the many parents who would have to bury their children and go against the laws of nature. I thought of every victim’s family and my heart broke.

There was a brief period of camaraderie, of an almost haughty self-respect and indignation. How DARE they do this to us? We were American, and for all our flaws, we were going to flaunt it and stand together. And so when President Bush announced the War on Terror, many of us supported it.

Things slowly started to crumble in the aftermath of 9/11, and for me and many of my democrat friends, questions soon started to arise. Why were we attacking Iraq, again? What was happening at Guantanamo Bay? Why was there a sudden rise in hate crimes against Muslims? Why were we restricting our immigration and tourism policies so severely? Why couldn’t our president speak properly? Gradually, our opinions turned against one another’s, and the unity began to break. The disparity among many of us was remembered, and by and large, it became heightened – this time, to a point I had never witnessed before.

By the time President Bush was re-elected in 2004, I was 20 and my American pride had turned into disgust. This was only reinforced by the growing distaste other countries had for mine, which I witnessed time after time as I started to spend time abroad. The world was turning against America, and so was I. When the time came where I could choose to move to Australia or stay in America, I left without hesitation.

Four years later when Obama was elected, I felt a lonely swell of pride from my apartment in Bondi, and I longed for the street parades that would undoubtedly be happening at home. I spent the entire day crying in sentimental victory, drinking, and watching the news. Despite the lack of camaraderie, it was one of the best days of my life.

But once again, that joy became overshadowed by the seemingly innumerable problems in my country; my overwhelmingly intelligent friends couldn’t find jobs, my grandparents lost their life savings in Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme, and my family couldn’t sell their property as it steeply declined in value. We had a fresh leader, yes, but we had a long way to go.

And that brings me to today. Sure, there remain a host of questions: will this have any impact on the animosity felt towards America by much of the Arab world? Will it decrease the amount of terrorist attacks? Can Al Qaeda survive without its greatest leader, and is there another leader in the waiting? How can America change its image abroad? When will Americans learn to stop being so damn racist? The most recent “birth certificate controversy” clearly had its roots far below the surface, and it is issues such as these that weaken our image from Australia to Afghanistan. When – and how – will we know better?

The questions will always exist, but for a moment, I’m going to pause. Pause to celebrate the fact that I have an incredible president, pause to recognise justice for the scores of victims whose hearts will forever have a hole in them after 9/11, pause to remember the day when we silently wept for our country. I’m going to pause, for just a moment, before the questions wash over me once again.