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LIFE AFTER DEATH

Are Dan Choi, Dan Savage, And Mark Bingham’s Mom Happy With Bin Laden’s Death?

By Daniel Villarreal May 4, 2011 at 7:00am
Even though Al-Qaeda founder and terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden is dead, his lethal legacy affected more than just those who perished in the September 11th attacks. For Alice Hoagland who lost her gay son Mark Bingham in the attacks, Bin Laden’s death brings closure and consolation. But Lieutenant Dan Choi and sex columnist Dan Savage feel respectively reflective and pissed off. Come join the cavalcade of ambivalence as we recount their reactions to this week’s big news.
After September 11th Dan Choi served in Iraq and then became the national face of the battle against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. To him, all the people celebrating the news of Bin Laden’s death were “celebrating that we’re all Americans” (does that make May 1st a new American Independence Day instead of the Russian New Year?). For him, finally dispatching Bin Laden after a decades-long search mirrors his own travails since the attacks: “I have sometimes lost hope in my personal journey, but I know that so long as we tell ourselves from the very first moments of stepping up to serve our country that we will never give up until we accomplish what we set out to achieve, then we’re gonna be alright.” Video via Towleroad
At 9:37 am the morning of September 11, 2001, San Francisco Fog rugby player Mark Kendall Bingham called his mother Alice Hoagland to tell her that his flight to San Francisco had been hijacked by three men who claimed to have a bomb. Several of Bingham’s fellow passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 had already heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon through phone calls with their families. Twenty minutes later, the passengers decided to storm the cockpit to prevent another terrorist attack. The besieged hijackers then nose dived the plane into a Pennsylvanian coal mine killing themselves and everyone on board. Bingham has since been memorialized at the crash site and through an international, non-professional, gay rugby union tournament bearing his name. But his mother feels great relief from Bin Laden’s death, a feeling she assumes she shares with others who lost loved ones during the attacks. Video via Unicorn Booty


“Just like every recession during a Republican administration is blamed on the most-recent Democrat president (all recessions are inherited!), and every economic boom during a Democratic administration is credited to the most-recent Republican president (all booms are bequeathed!), GOP commentators and think tanks are no doubt busily drafting op-eds and policy papers crediting Osama Bin Laden’s death to George W. Bush’s administration. Obama was just following through on war-on-terror policies put into place by Bush, if Bush hadn’t have chased him out of Afghanistan, Bush said we wanted Osama “dead or alive” and—hey!—now he’s dead, blah blah fuckin’ blah.”

Sex columnist and political activist Dan Savage on May 2nd lamenting the inevitable spin of Bin Laden’s death by Republican pundits.

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8 Comments*

  • meego

    Bin Laden died of natural causes (kidney disease) over 9 years ago. He is “ressurected” as needed, namely when good PR is desperatly needed for the President. So far, he has been “killed” twice. A child can see that the “death” photos are fake.

  • Cam

    @meego:

    Your conspiracy theories may be more believable except for two things.

    1. The “Death Photos” that you claim are obviously faked, haven’t been released. So your opinion about them is obviously “Fake”

    2. Al Queda has released statements saying they will retailiate for Bin Ladin’s death. previously anytime anybody claimed he was dead, they denied it. They confirmed his killing this time.

    So….nice try.

  • Abel

    Savage was right. Already Sarah Palin has thanked George Bush for bin Laden’s death, with no mention of President Obama.

  • Spike

    Dan Choi needs to just go find a job and go away. Who cares what he thinks and why does he always need to make it about him?

  • meego

    @Cam: I just looked up the word gullible and I saw your picture. Anyone who believes anything put out by the media deserves whatever they get. Your stupidity is so astounding, I don’t know where to start. Learn to read between the lines, you unbelievable idiot! You are so completely clueless as to who the world really works. You really believe they “killed” him? Are you that dumb? If the country really does collapse, it will be because of fools like you who are too dumb to realize what’s really happening. I feel sorry for you. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

  • meego

    @Cam: 2. Al Queda has released statements saying they will retailiate for Bin Ladin’s death. previously anytime anybody claimed he was dead, they denied it. They confirmed his killing this time.

    You actually believe this? Goddamn, you are dumb! You are a living example of the dumbing down of America. I’m laughing myself silly just knowing you believe that horse-shit. I read your reply and thought to myself that you couldn’t be serious. But apparently you are. You must be one of the countless sheeples who still believe that the government is working for the good of the people. I’m giving myself a hernia here from laughing at you! No wonder America is in the state it is now. With idiots like you, no wonder!

  • EdWoody

    @meego: You’re the one making the claim – the onus of proof is on you. You have provided none, and yet you lambast others. You’re the idiot and every word you type is laughable.

  • RomanHans

    > I’m giving myself a hernia here from laughing at you!

    Make sure you get the kind of truss that fits over your mouth.

Comments are closed.

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