America Rally

Sunday evening, the news started blowing up about Barack Obama making an announcement. Tweets, Facebook statuses and text messages were all being posted and sent, and finally, Obama appeared on the screen to make the official announcement.

The United States had succeeded in killing Osama bin Laden, which ultimately signified to Americans that we had proceeded in defeating al Qaeda and addressing the September 11, 2001 attacks directly rather than indirectly.

I was out to dinner at the time, and the entire restaurant watched in silence as Obama spoke. We were "proud to be Americans," and feeling a sense of blessing in the USA that terrorism would soon decrease. Regardless of whether that's true, Mizzou students and college students across the nation took this as a time to celebrate American life and began to parade.

As I drove back from dinner, cars were circling "Greektown," the neighborhood of Greek chapter homes in the middle of campus, screaming out their windows, waving flags and proving this excitement. I drove a circle on my own to see what was going on, and everyone started migrating to the streets. Here's just some of what we saw.

A member of my sorority drives a big red truck, and helped to start a parade around Greektown of excitement. Members from all of the chapters (and students in general) lined the streets applauding, and I hopped in the truck to join the parade. Here are some of my sorority sisters!
Soon after the parade ended, the police came. Worried that they would arrest people for being in the back of trucks, fireworks, etc.--they were so proud to be American that they could not. They blocked off the streets for a celebration--and look what happened.
This is actually what campus looked like. Everyone had somehow in minutes obtained American flags, toilet paper rolls being thrown as streamers, Uncle Sam costumes and more, acting excited to be in the United States. But what exactly were we celebrating?
Uncle Sam about to crowd surf
In my opinion, we were celebrating a long-awaited symbol of defeat that will hopefully act as one. I don't personally believe that we can be as confident as we were, but it is exciting to see Americans and college students unite over something. Whether they were joining the celebration to commemorate Osama bin Laden's death, Barack Obama's speech or the sign of defeating al Qaeda, we were united for one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.