Outside the White House, Rowdy Jubilation Over Bin Laden’s Death

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It was the world’s biggest death party. The news of Osama bin Laden’s killing drew a few thousand Washingtonians to the White House on Sunday night, transforming Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park into the site of a jubilant frat party. Draped in American flags, the jumbled mass of strangers chanted “U-S-A,” mugged for the cameras, climbed trees and shimmied up lampposts as passing motorists honked their support. There were many college kids – hundreds from nearby George Washington University, bedecked in their school sweats. A few students shotgunned beers and furtively smoked pot. Others whooped incessantly, sang the national anthem, snapped photos on cellphones and hugged strangers. The stars-and-stripes were everywhere: painted on faces, ribboned through trees, printed on a girl’s bikini top. One man, surveying the youthful crowd, wondered aloud, “How many twenty-somethings have American flags in their dorm rooms?”

Signs were equally abundant. “Never forget,” read one. “Amurrka!” said another. There were yellow Tea Party flags, a “Latinos For Obama” sign, a Bush-Cheney ’04 decal. A young girl scrawled “Donald Trump Demands bin Laden’s Death Certificate” onto a crumpled Domino’s pizza box and held it aloft as onlookers roared. “I lost my roommate, dude,” said one reveler. “He drank probably a liter of Jack [Daniel’s whiskey] and I don’t know if he’s gonna make it home.” A drum circle broke out; a busker strummed a guitar. Nobody seemed quite sure what bin Laden’s death meant, but everyone agreed it occasioned a party.

Connor Halliday, a 21-year-old student at Furman University who plans to enlist in the Army, unfurled a white flag emblazoned with an M-16 and the inscription “Come and Take It.” He was sweaty from screaming. “Killing a figurehead isn’t going to end everything,” he said. “It’s symbolic. But it’s really important for this country. We’ve been waiting for this for 10 years. I’m just happy we got him.”

His friend Will Hinson, 21, suggested that killing bin Laden might help shore up support for the war. Some braced for recriminations abroad and urged continued vigilance. “I think keeping fear alive is actually a good thing,” said Theerasak Punngam, 23, a student from Washington who wore a makeshift cape in lieu of a shirt.

Others said they hoped bin Laden’s death would help foster the same sense of unity that emerged in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks nearly a decade ago. “It’s not just the enemy from without that we need to worry about,” said Laura Appelbaum, 47, a saleswoman from Silver Spring, Md., who wore a beaded 9/11 pin on her New York Mets hat. “We need to repair ourselves as a country. I just needed to be here with my fellow Americans to share this.”