Speak Thier Names, Not His

"I hope it is their names we speak, not bin Laden's."
"I hope his name is hardly ever uttered and I hope his picture disappears."




"It's understandable in the hours with Osama bin Laden killing there would be so much talk about him. After nearly ten years of waiting, ten years of imagining where he was, what his life was like, wondering if he would strike again, it is a relief to know he's gone. It's like inhaling after holding one's breath for a painfully long time. We all want to hear as much detail as we can, and that's natural and understandable. Some day, however, in the not too distant future, I hope we no longer give bin Laden the satisfaction of ever speaking his name or even remembering him in our nightmares.

I keep thinking of him now, buried at sea, wrapped in a white cloth in a weighted bag, slid into the icy ocean. They say it was done according to Islamic tradition. That upset some people and I understand why. But the message it sends is that we are a country that does not drag the bodies of our enemies through the streets. We do not behead them for the entertainment of others. We do not mutilate their corpses.

I think of his body sinking into the sea, disappearing into the dark depths of the ocean. This man who terrorized so many for so long has simply disappeared. The ocean is a very big place and in the end, Osama bin Laden was a very small man. He's gone. We cannot forget the horror that he unleashed, but as the months and years pass, I hope his name is hardly ever uttered and I hope his picture disappears, as well.

As the years pass, I hope it's not the wasted life of this mass murderer we remember. I hope instead we recall the lives of those we lost. I hope we remember Leon Smith Jr., one of the brave New York City firefighters who rushed into the burning Twin Towers. Being a firefighter was his dream. His fellow firefighters said he was known for fixing the cars of just about anyone in the firehouse, as well as the cars of their wives and girlfriends. Here's a man making those repairs after coming off a 24-hour shirt.

Leon was 48 years old and left three daughters behind.

I hope we remember Samantha Lightbourn-Allen, a budget analyst at the Pentagon. She was 36, a mother of 16 -- of a 16-year-old son, a 12-year-old daughter, a born again Christian. Samantha also left behind a twin sister.

And Craig Damian Lilore. He was just 30, working finance for Cantor-Fitzgerald. The "Times" said he also had a law degree. Craig was a husband and a father to a newborn son, Joseph Craig. You see him there in the photo. Craig had recently bought a boat but had never had a chance to name it. His brother-in-law told the "Times" they'd given it a name. They call it Craiger.

In the years ahead, I hope it is their names we speak, not bin Laden's. I hope it's how they lived their lives we remember in addition to how those lives ended. I hope we remember all that they did and all that they never lived to do."
-- Anderson Cooper





From CNN.com's Archives: September 11, A Memorial