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I was taking a shower yesterday morning when Lisa came into the bathroom and told me she’d heard on the news that Navy Seals had found, shot and killed Osama bin Laden.  I was surprised at the news. That’s it, just surprised.  I suppose I was waiting for my brain to begin processing the information.

As I shampooed my hair my mind wandered. I felt I should have been ecstatic at the news but then I realized that I was unable to find happiness and cause to celebrate the intentional death of another human being.  Don’t get me wrong, I have not forgotten the innocent lives lost in the attacks of 9/11 nor have I forgotten the lives lost in the almost 10 years since then of military members from a host of nations in the war against terror in the Middle East.  Their deaths cannot be marginalized, trivialized or lessened in any way.  As a nation, we still feel the full effects of the loss of almost 3,500 innocent lives as well as the loss of 4,452 troops.  When we do the math, we find that we can attribute roughly 8,000 deaths to Osama bin Laden.  If anyone deserved the death penalty, he certainly did.

Studies show that the families of victims of violent crime who watch the execution of the perpetrator rarely achieve closure or any sense of satisfaction, justice, happiness or celebration.  At the end of the day, they still take home the ache of their loss.  Some report that their anger and bitterness have not subsided and that they feel hatred for anyone who may look or act like the perpetrator of the heinous crime committed against their loved ones.  Some act out on these feelings, others swallow them like a bitter but ineffective pill every single day.  In the end, the death of the monster changes nothing.

On the day extremist Muslim members of Al Qaeda terrorized the world by flying airplanes into the twin towers and the Pentagon, a small number of other extremists danced and celebrated at the devastating loss of lives they had inflicted.  If we dance and celebrate the death of Osama bin Laden, we become no different than those extremists who took 3,500 lives for shock value.

I found this on the web, and it really put into words where I was with the whole thing.  I wish I knew who wrote it so I could credit him or her:

Osama’s death in and of itself is not reason to rejoice, for we should neither dignify the man’s life by giving it such importance or be hypocritically glad for the murder of any man. The reason to be glad is that because he is gone, so is one more evil, and with him dies a piece of what he represents. Rejoice that you and your loved ones are still alive. Dance because you are here, not because he is not.~ Unknown

I also found this quote, incorrectly attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. that speaks to this occasion as well:

I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Once upon a time, I thought America’s citizens were better than this — able to rise above this kind of tragedy and turn it into something positive from which future generations can learn and benefit.  Instead, we boast that the torture of Muslims in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay got us what we needed to know in order to kill Osama bin Laden and several others.  We prance about, happy to display our big balls to the world, blissfully ignorant to the fact that we have become that which we condemn and hate.

Heated debate also surrounds the notion that “Obama is taking credit for what Bush did.”  Obama haters need to believe this in order to fuel their own racist hatred for him.  In fact, he’s not taking credit for anything other than giving the order to green light the mission.  Unfortunately, those who hate Obama with such intensity as those I have seen making these statements have a deep rooted need to make it about Obama being less than he is.   The last thing they will do is give him credit for having the guts to green light the mission and eliminate the one person that all of America has joined together in hating.  No more, no less.  In fact, those same people still want to canonize George W. Bush who failed for eight years to find Osama bin Laden, who declared “Mission Accomplished” in a publicity stunt that saw more than 4,000 deaths of US Troops after the “accomplishment” of said mission.  The only mission that was accomplished that day was a publicity stunt because, as of this writing, the mission still isn’t accomplished.  We are still enmeshed in a quagmire of violence in the Middle East, with no end in sight.  That, my friends, was not Mr. Obama’s doing.

For those that are still dancing and celebrating over the death of Osama bin Laden, let me ask you this.  Do you really think that is the end of it?  Are you so blissfully ignorant in your happiness that you can’t figure out that the gloating, dancing, celebrating and cheering over the death of Osama bin Laden will only serve to inflame his followers who, being extremists, may very well decide to do something that will cause greater losses and tragedies here in this country?  It’s very likely this will be the calm before the storm.  When the retaliation happens, and the losses are greater and more than we can bear, remember your days of dancing and celebrating because, when you dance, you eventually have to pay the piper.

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