Today will be a day long remembered. Like the moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall, this is going to be one of those days we’ll smile when we tell our grandchildren about. May 1^st, 2011: Osama Bin Laden is DEAD!

 

Ok, so that was perhaps a bit of an over-statement. My sincerest apologies to Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Aldrin, I did not mean to equate your stupendous achievement with killing a terrorist. It’s not as important a milestone by any means. Still, its one of those days we’ll always remember.

And, much like Pearl Harbor or the Challenger and Colombia disasters, we’ll never forget the events of September 11^th, 2001. I remember I was on my way to school in my dad’s card when we heard it on the radio. I didn’t believe it, it was surreal.

Well, today I will never forget where I was or what I was doing when I heard that we had finally killed that stupid terrorist. One of our greatest enemies lies dead, an American bullet in him, his life ended by an American soldier. America! Yes, I’m feeling a bit patriotic, as should everyone else.

I talk a lot in this journal about history, about the importance of it. Centuries from now, we will still remember this date. Until something happens to eclipse the tragedy of 9/11, 5/1 will be a day we celebrate. Personally, I’m going to go ahead and call for a national holiday.

But back to how this relates to your writing. As you produce cohesive histories, dates become ever more important. Especially if you write in a smaller world, everyone should have a few dates that hold great significance.

This is probably the biggest hurdle in producing a good fictional culture. The sort of national pride that we Americans all feel right now. (Well, except for the 9/11 truthers, but who cares how those idiots feel? I mean seriously, they are all suffering from some form of retardation that precludes the rest of us from feeling sorry for them). When you create your fictional world, you need to re-create that pride in some event or individual.

Then comes the international pride. While America may have suffered the most grievous blows, many countries were attacked. Well, we can all share this feeling. It may have been an American soldier, but he did it for all of us, he did it to remove one more horrible, wretched wreck of a being from this world.

And, if you’d like, just take a moment to imagine the look on Bin Laden’s face when he found himself in hell.