As the world has found out, Usama Bin Laden is dead. When I heard this news I couldn't help but think "I'm glad we got him...at least he didn't die of a heart attack or something." This was a dish that could never be cold. There was too much feeling, too much passion, too much pain on our side to ever let it go cold. It was and is on fire. Immediately after I had this thought though I felt a twinge of guilt. Was it provoked by a sense of justice or vengeance?
Such a thin line exists between the two. It's so terribly easy to cross over from justice to vengeance. Justice implies a fair and equal punishment for a wrong commited, whereas vengeance is punishment to an excessive or unreasonable degree. It's difficult to say that any punishment could be enough to equal what Usama did to our nation and others. If I were to deal out justice here I'd probably lock him in a room in which homevideos from all of the people who died because of him were playing 24/7. Wedding videos, videos from birthday parties and Christmas mornings, graduations...thousands of lifetimes before his eyes of lives he ended, destroyed, and hurt. From the limited knowledge I have it doesn't seem like capture was much of an option, and as much as I hate the taking of any life, in this circumstance, death was the only way to save us from any further autrocities at his hand. There may be revenge, but at least some sort of justice was done.
What I've seen happen since the news broke the other night, however, has made me question what is in the hearts of so many people. Everyone it seems has been celebrating. Parties and chanting in the streets. We're safe from the man behind 9/11...is that not reason to celebrate? In a way, yeah, I guess it is. People my age and younger have grown up with this monster under the bed and he's finally gone. It's difficult to know what to do. Personally I could never celebrate any death. Is this not the perfect time rather to be grateful justice has been done and remember those who have died or lost someone they loved in terrorist attacks of the past decade. I've heard things said and seen reactions that I've found appaling, but I understand that everyone has just been trying to process everything that's happened, not just in the past days or weeks, but the past 10 years in the best way they can. Vengeance is a dark thing. I just pray that all those people, including the throng of people that were in the Rockroom here at Rockhurst chanting and cheering when the news broke, have been able to keep life in perspective.
There's plenty to say about the political implications of all of this, but I think this is a good place to leave it for now.
Love and prayers
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