Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead

Typically, older Americans are the ones most informed about the news. Yesterday's killing of Osama Bin Laden may have been the first Big News event in which the youngest generation was the first to know and spread the news to their peers in a whoosh of texting, Twittering, and Facebook posts.

On the East Coast, many older Americans were asleep when the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead burst onto millions of cellphones. It is likely that many did not hear the news until hours later when they collected their morning paper. There is no doubt that the audience for President Obama's late night remarks was decidedly youthful, as were the crowds that formed spontaneously in Washington, D.C. and New York.

Everyone under the age of, say, 25 has another reason besides their late night schedules and texting prowess to follow the news about Osama Bin Laden's killing so closely. Older generations have seen enemies come and go--Germans, Japanese, North Vietnamese, communists, Richard Nixon. For the younger generation, Osama Bin Laden was The Enemy. Now he's dead. This is their V-Day.