The conversation

"Have people at school been talking about Osama bin Laden?"

Firstborn and C., in chorus: "Who?"

"Oh, nothing."

F: "No, who is that?!"

"Just a bad man who died a few days ago."

F: "Why was he bad?"

C.: "Did he hurt animals?"

"No, he hurt people. A lot of people. He was a terrorist."

C.: "Oh, I know what a terrorist is."

"Do you guys know what happened on 9/11?"

(in chorus) "No."

"Do you know about the World Trade Center? The Twin Towers?"

F: "You mean when the airplanes flew into the buildings and they fell down? And everyone in them died?"

"Yes. Osama bin Laden was the man -- the terrorist -- who made that happen. He ordered that to happen."

C. : "Then it is a good thing he is gone."

"Yes."

C.: "Mama, when there are bad men like terrrists, if we find them can we just pick up a shotgun and shoot them?"

"I don't know. I mean, I think it's probably better if you try to take them to prison alive. But that is what happened to this bad man. The soldiers found him and shot him."

C: "Are all terrrists bad men, Mama?"

"Yes. All of them are bad men. They try to scare people with violence. That's why we call them terrorists."

F: "Mom, didn't the Twin Towers fall down, like, a hundred years ago?"

"No, honey. That happened just ten years ago. Right before you were born."

And now they know. They know that there are real bad men in the world, and that they hurt real people. I had no idea that conversation would happen today.