Don Goodrich of Bennington lost his son Peter on September 11, 2001, when Peter was as a passenger aboard one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center. We asked Don to share his personal reaction to the news that Osama bin Laden had been found and killed, about to comment on the larger context he sees:
"I find no satisfaction in the loss of any life. It is not a matter that I think should be cheered. Unfortunately the human condition is such that killing Osama bin Laden was necessary and killing others who were directly responsible for the loss of life on September 11 is also justified and needs to occur.
"But the one thing we cannot ignore are the simple, unvarnished, unpublished good lives of the thousands who died at their hands. I just hope that Osama bin Laden’s death will be put in the larger context of the continuing effort to avoid and diminish the underlying conditions of terrorism: illiteracy, poverty, dysfunctional institutions.
"So I have powerfully mixed emotions about this day. While at the same time I am grateful for the enormous effort and the enormous risks that were taken to kill Osama bin Laden."