dead

I'm not sorry he's dead.

I am sorry and shamed by the reaction of some of my fellow Americans.

I'm not a death penalty proponent. But I acknowledge that there really wasn't anything else we could do but kill bin Laden. Important people who cause problems simply can't be there anymore. He set himself up for it. I get that.

But.

After the towers came down, I saw footage in the streets of Middle Eastern countries, cheering. CHEERING the death of my countrymen. My husband knew people who died that day.

I was shaking, I was so upset. Hurt. Furious. It was as if humanity had taken a back seat to hatred. Wishing ill on others is not just anti-Christian. It's anti-HUMAN.

Of course, Americans like to think we're better than that.

But.

Cheering and rallying at the capitol? Glee at Ground Zero? Gruesome pictures of the the Statue of Liberty holding Osama's bleeding head? Joyful posts on Facebook?


We aren't any better than our so-called enemies. Not today.

addendum: 

addendum #2:
" Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate...Returning violence for violence multiples violence, 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.

10 comments:

Stephen Parrish said...

I have a different view. He killed thousands. We killed him. What he did made the world a worse place. What we did probably made the world a better place. I don't think you can compare the two celebrations.

Vicki said...

Stephen .... I agree completely.

And let me add....

"I do not rejoice over death but over the fact that someone who has wished death upon me and my countrymen, can no longer make good on those wishes." ~ Holly, wife of a brave soldier currently deployed in Afghanistan

Les Edgerton said...

Betsy, I respect and applaud your stance here. It's a decidedly unpopular opinion and took courage on your part to post it. However, I have to agree with Stephen--this was a murderer and his death absolutely leaves the world a better place. As Stephen also said, the two celebrations are very different--they celebrated a heinous murder, while we celebrated justice.

That said, I do admire you for stating your opinion. It's the job of writers to tell our truths and not ape the opinions of others, even if our opinions might be unpopular. You get my respect.

ssas said...

Thanks.

As I said, he had to die. I'm glad it was handled the way it was and I'm sorry it took so long to accomplish.

But celebrating it sickens me. And people cheering death is people cheering death, no matter the language or beliefs or justification.

lesleylsmith said...

Sex, I agree with you. On the news last night when I saw people cheering death I couldn't believe it. Frankly, I still can't really believe it...

I've been struggling with the concept of killing bad guys in my WIP. Ultimately, I kept coming back to "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"--some men are evil and must be stopped.
BUT we should never feel good about killing other people! :(

Anonymous said...

But ... do Americans really think we're better than other people? How? We're made of exactly the same stuff as everybody else.

We're not different from other cultures because we work harder, or we're more creative, or even because we love freedom --- plenty of other cultures can say those same things.

We're different because we love accountability. We love checks and balances. We know that if we make a big free-for-all, if information is as open as possible, most of the corrupt bastards among us will be checked, most of the time. Heck, lots of times we luck out and our corrupt bastards take each OTHER down.

We recognize that most people have some good in them --- but we don't fall for the illusion that some of us (a caste, a race, a religion or a party) are above reproach, above temptation, or above criticism. That's rarer in the world than most Americans appreciate.

And the price is --- recognizing that all of us have some bad stuff in there too? That even the best of us get a little dirty?

I'm OK with that.

Stacy said...

This father of a 9/11 victim said it best for me:

"So although I don't disapprove of the patriotism and happiness expressed around the nation in the past day, I can't say that I feel the desire to participate in the celebration. Bin Laden's death won't bring James back."

ssas said...

That even the best of us get a little dirty?

There's an entire novel in that statement.

Kieron Heath said...

This is a man who plotted to kill thousands, and succeeded and used his wife as a human shield. As the head of a lethal organisation I think he needed to be taken out. I don't celebrate his death, but I think the right thing was done.

I just hope there isn't a big repercussion. We may have killed the head of the snake, but we forgot that this snake has multiple heads and they keep growing.

ssas said...

Actually, they confirmed this morning that he did not use a woman as a shield. My understanding is that he was alone in the room, and unarmed, though he did put up resistance.

I thought it was brave of the officials to admit he wasn't armed. That could open us up to all kinds of repercussions (there's already talk of investigations by our own attorney general). But that makes me feel as if they're being generally honest about the situation.

And frankly, these guys were the best SEALs we have, so they could probably have made the shot anyway.

His org reportedly is very decentralized, but I'm glad we got computers, etc. And hopefully we can cut off his part of the funding.