If This Is Winning, I'd Hate to Learn What Losing Feels Like

Like a lot of my friends, I'm a little uncomfortable hearing about people celebrating the death of Osama Bin Laden by singing Queen's We Are the Champions. Nothing against Queen, it just feels like the wrong time to boast. At the same time, I think (or at least hope) that this is generally speaking an example of benign mob mentality, especially where New York City is concerned.  That is to say, I believe most people intellectually understand that Bin Laden's death isn't really the end of terrorist threats, they're just reacting to him as a symbol. Over the past decade, and a sequence of events that ultimately straddled three American presidencies, he became a symbol not only of the threat of terrorism but also the way in which we as a country allowed ourselves to be distracted from the actual fight against it. In that light, Bin Laden's death has a cathartic aspect that, while it may be overblown, should not be casually dismissed.