Many Americans were glued to the television last Sunday, waiting on confirmation that the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks was actually dead. There was much rejoicing when it was made official, including at our house.

I remembered when my 15-year-old, who was 5 during the disaster, came home with a picture he’d drawn in kindergarten of a plane about to crash into a skyscraper. 

We stopped watching television for a week after that. My husband and I realized
how saturated our children were becoming by re-watching the horrors from that
day.

As I drove my 13-year-old to school on Monday, I talked with her about the announcement of Osama bin Laden’s death. I also asked her to say a

prayer for her cousin, who’s stationed in a dangerous location overseas.

Already there were reports of the American government preparing for retaliatory attacks, and my godson is in a prime location.
Apparently so is my neighbor, who I drive to school every morning. She’s

in the JROTC program at her high school, and they no longer drill outside or
wear their uniforms. They’ve been warned that the Taliban is targeting
them. 

Of course they are. Why would you target the folks who are actually trained to fight you when you can pick on those with the least amount of training to make your point?

That’s what they did when they used innocent civilians to launch their offensive nearly a decade ago.

Bullies always pick on those weaker than themselves. So do cowards. They try

to incite fear.

My daughter’s first reaction to the potential danger to her cousin was to get choked up. She wiped the tears from her eyes as she said: "I didn't realize he was there."
I confirmed he was and told her we had to pray and believe he’d be OK. 

Our government would be looking out for him.

She swallowed back her tears, nodded firmly, and glanced over at me. 

“Can we make some cookies for him?”

That’s the American spirit starting at an early age.