Family member of 9/11 victim reacts to bin Laden’s death
Mari-Rae Sopper (submitted photo)
As we watched the images of celebrations and pictures of Osama bin Laden being flashed across TV screens, the memories returned to the families of 9/11 victims. Oskaloosa resident Frank Kminek said that he was surprised at the news. “I was just very surprised, just hadn’t expected to hear anything about it. I had long since assumed that he would probably die of natural causes before we ever found him,” he said.
Kminek’s sister, Marie Rae Sopper was one of 184 killed at the Pentagon. Sopper was on board American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. Sopper was “following her dream” to become the coach of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) when she boarded Flight 77. Sopper was a gymnast at ISU. After walking on the team in her freshman year, she received an athletic scholarship for her Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years and was even voted Iowa State’s Most Valuable Gymnast in her senior year.
Kminek said that he was rather happy that bin Laden was no longer alive. “After thinking about it for half a day I’m glad that he’s out of the picture and I’m glad that he can’t really instigate anymore terror,” he said. However, Kminek said that despite bin Laden’s death, this really didn’t bring closure to him. “No. Not really at all. In fact I was telling my wife I feel kind of odd, out of place. I don’t have terribly strong feelings about this.It brings back lots of memories as strong feelings about but it’s just been so impersonal, never expected that there would be a trial, never expected that there would be an arrest, never thought that he would be caught or would have to face consequences. ” Kminek said.
He also went on to say “Maybe this is the beginning of the end of the Afghanistan War, and I’m not suggesting or thinking that that’s going to happen real soon, but hopefully it’s a sign that things could change. But no in terms of, no it really doesn’t being a sense of closure for me. It wasn’t anything that he or anyone else could do that could change that.”
To read more about Mari-Rae Sopper, you can visit her memorial website by clicking HERE.
