Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The Death of Osama bin Laden, Something To Cheer About?

We don't think so. Yvette and I, no doubt, were pleased to hear that an important mission had been accomplished. However, it didn't occur to us to wave flags and run out and cheer. That would have been just as uncivilized as the crowds in the Middle East cheering in the streets, happy to hear about the death of three thousand innocent people on 9/11.

So, who's uncivilized now?  This is a time to show restraint and to show that through it all, we can show off our civility.  Every minute spent cheering bin Laden's death, is a moment stolen from the memory of one who lost their life on 9/11.

We should take a page out of a group in Long Island who chose to recognize the ones they lost. "It's not about Osama," one woman said.

If our government can muster the civility to assure that Osama was buried in proper Islam accordance after his heinous crimes against us,  individually, we can too.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Without reading what you and Yvonne have had to say about the assassination of Osama bin Laden, here's my take on the entire sordid mess.

No matter what President Barack H. Obama does, no matter his good intentions, no matter his skills at leadership and statesmanship, he will NEVER get anything "right" in the eyes and craws of the Right Wing. So I will step back from that part. I still believe in him and I have faith in him. I would not like to play Poker with him because I know he'd ALWAYS win. Besides, I don't play Poker.

To see Americans standing in droves/groups/mobs shouting, "USA, USA, USA," came very close to causing a bad case of dry heaves, and certainly it gave me a the shakes and a question to my inner self and heart, "Why am I still here?" The practical answer to that question is that I'm too old and too poor to go anywhere else to start over. The soul-felt question is, "What has happened to us, what has happened to my country?"

I am saddened, sickened and horrified that the best we can do, after all the talk of being better/a cut above the rest/the-chosen-living-in-the-City-on-the-Hill, is to be as thuggish, as clownish, as selfish, as arrogant, as ignorant and as creepy as any of the worst in the world's history. Given the right tutelage, we'd be Nazis, and a trip to France to see their Far Right there in action would give the Tea Party lunatics some great pointers. We wrap ourselves in a flag, in a Declaration of Independence, in a Constitution, in a Bill of Rights, in a Judeo-Christian ethic of being our brother's keeper which are all babble, if we view it all through the lens of what we have become, what we currently, collectively, are. We can't walk the talk because we're too goddamned fat to even walk.

In a way, shooting bin Laden was our only choice, since we wouldn't have given him over to the World Court in the Hague or brought him to justice in all three places that became our worst nightmare on that day nearly ten years ago. We lack the moral conviction and the will to stand up for what we tell the world we are, and probably never actually were, given some very revealing parts of our history -- institutional slavery and racism, the well-organized and orchestrated genocide against Native Americans, Viet Nam, to name several low points. But my generation's hope was that somehow we'd figure out how to live up to the verbiage and rise above our own petty, self-serving agenda. We haven't and it doesn't appear that we ever will.

We have yet to speak about the MANY thousands of people who have perished at our hands in the Middle East, in wars for profit and certainly we haven't seen any true picture of all those horrors. We can watch Glee (I've never seen it and don't intend to) Nip and Tuck, Desperate Housewives of Atlanta, Dancing With the Stars and the Fashion Police with Joan Rivers (I did and I loved it) but we don't have the stomach to look squarely at the havoc we're wreaking on ourselves, on others and on the planet.

I am sad and sick and I also think not. Now I have read your comments and of course I agree. You don't have room in your blog for this spew, I'm quite sure.

Anonymous said...

Agreed! Here is what we need to remember:

"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."


- Martin Luther King Jr.

Elizabeth said...

You two are SOOO right. I find it absolutely barbaric that some are demanding to see photos of a dead man. Please, let's hope Obama can fend off the pressure and maintain a sense of civility for our national brand. We are not animals; we are not vengeful; we seek justice and feel it's been served but there is no need for blood and gore to be shown like a violet video game.

Anonymous said...

Good call, once again. I had mixed feelings--a sense that justice had finally been done, along with a sense of shame at being pleased that another human being was dead, which is more third-world thinking than American. In addition, I can't imagine anyone wanting to see the gruesome pictures. Don't those people realize this epitomizes everything America ISN'T about?

Bottom line is, Osama's death will never bring back the precious lives that we lost. Our thoughtful, elegant president's restraint will keep us in check and help reinforce a balanced perspective (not to mention, improve his chances for re-election). He makes me even more proud to be American.

Anonymous

Anonymous said...

The comments are as thoughtful and illuminating as your post.

Unknown said...

Very well said!

Anonymous said...

Always a pleasure to read your thoughts. I agree, we should not cheer, but the murder of Osama had to be done. Hateful energy is tangible, whether it's Osama's or our own, and to be rid of that energy is beneficial to the rest of us who exist on earth. I'm glad you are here to remind us not to create more hateful energy. Finally, I'm not aware that burial at sea is proper according the Islam. Can someone clarify.