Pleased reaction here, but also ambivalence

The 400 economists having breakfast at the Marriott Hotel thought a bomb had exploded. They weren't sure it was safe to go out, but they did.

Vest walked west "through the rubble and the broken glass and the burning papers," stopping when he got to the Hudson River.

"I was looking back when I heard and saw a jet come screaming through the southern sky and slice through the South Tower."

On Sunday night, he was attending the Tucson Folk Festival downtown when rumors began circulating through the crowd that Osama bin Laden had been killed. He went home and turned on the television.

"When I heard the news, it didn't take me back to the World Trade Center. What I thought of was how that and subsequent events had changed the lives of people the world over and said 'OK, well, they finally got the guy; I'm sure that's good.' But then, being a trained economist whose job it is to worry about things, I started to contemplate what it might mean."

If it makes people and investors think the world is now a safer place, it could have a beneficial effect on the economy, Vest said.

"If this just simply moves terrorism to a higher level, then the opposite is true."

Like Vest, many Tucsonans were thoughtfully ambivalent about bin Laden's death.

"He's a bad guy, and he needed to be brought to justice," said retired Air Force Col. Bill Luce, "or maybe just left alone."

"Our pursuit of this one person and what it has cost us just doesn't equate to me. I don't think we should have gone into Afghani-stan in the first place."

Luce served in the Air Force during World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

"By the time I was finished I was pretty disillusioned about war as a solution to the world's problems," he said.

Dan Gregory, 44, led a team of 10 Pima County Victim Witness Program advocates who visited New York in September 2001 to help console those whose lives were shattered by the events of 9/11.

He found out bin Laden had been killed when he turned on the news after he got home Sunday night following the Warrior Dash racing event in Florence. His first reaction: a sigh of relief.

"It's not that I believe the whole issue of terrorism is over; it's just that I've got the 'oh, they got him' kind of a feeling," Gregory said.

Gregory said he's been haunted for the last decade by stories he heard from the New York trip, and has often wondered how those he met have been doing. He hopes bin Laden's death will provide relief for survivors rather than reopen old wounds.

"I think it might kind of do a little bit of both. I'm sure it will bring back a lot of feelings they had then, and I'm sure they've had a lot of triggers," Gregory said. "And at the same time I hope it would give them some closure."

Claire Ostrovsky, a 38-year-old massage therapist, accompanied Gregory on the 2001 trip.

"I'm mostly relieved for the victims' families," she said. "I feel like they're getting some sense of completion to this decade-long struggle."

Ostrovsky is alarmed that so many people are taking the occasion to celebrate.

"I guess I'm also sort of shocked by the glee about it," she said. "A little bit surprised by all the cheering. Surprised and not surprised, actually."

Kim Toscano, a 30-year-old Tucson Symphony Orchestra timpanist, is a native New Yorker who attended Hofstra University during 9/11. She recalls the aftermath of the tragedy as a time of trepidation, but also togetherness and love, as the community banded together to recover.

Her initial reaction to the bin Laden news, which she calls "beyond huge," is happiness tempered with fear.

"I know a lot of people are being very vocal on the extremes. People are celebrating vocally, and other people are taking issue with people celebrating as if somebody just won a World Series," Toscano said.

"People are feeling a variety of different things, but I don't feel anything like that. I'm actually worried a little bit. I just want to know we'll be vigilant. This is huge news for everyone, and that includes those people who believe him to be their 'god.' "

Toscano said she's worried about retaliation.

"Before we get too celebratory, I'd like to be sure somehow that we're moving in the direction of security and safety."

Mary Blair, a Tucson freelance writer, said bin Laden's death is "a first step. You know, basically, he's insignificant. It's like anybody who is evil. They shouldn't exist in our lives. They should disappear. So, for me, throwing him in the ocean - that's perfect."

Patricia Hyne, who works for a disaster-relief agency, said the operation that killed bin Laden made her "very very proud of our servicemen and especially of our president and the way he handled it with such finesse."

"I understand a lot of people don't agree with hunting someone down like an animal, but when someone acts like an animal, you don't want to be happy that someone's dead, but you are."

Contact reporter Tom Beal at tbeal@azstarnet.com or 573-4158. Contact reporter Phil Villarreal at pvillarreal@azstarnet.com or 573-4130.