I in my living room when my friend Mohamed read the news on the phone.
" Wait, they are saying Bin Laden is dead", he said.
At first I didn't believe it. I frantically searched for the remote knowing full well that there would be a Special Report and interruption of regularly scheduled programming. When I turned on the TV it was all over every station. Osama Bin Laden is dead. I admit, I did feel a surge of joy, I felt a moment of happiness...well, to be honest it was longer than a moment. I watched the president speak, and applauded loudly when he emphasized that we are not at war with Islam, and that Osama was not a Muslim leader, but rather a mass murderer of Muslims. I felt tears for the 9/11 victims, and when they showed yet again the planes crashing into those towers, my stomach, as always, turned and my heart sank.
I know I am going to get a lot of poo for saying this but I am going to say it. I did not like seeing people celebrating so happily. I know he was a bad man. I know the world is a better place without him. but I do not feel like celebrating and rejoicing is human of me. It sucks that ANY of this has happened. I think a more appropriate response would have been to act a little more dignified about it. How...I don't know, but some of the things I saw when watching the people celebrate just didn't feel right to me. I would say the same for the celebration of the death of anybody. A quote I have been seeing pop up all day struck me in the heart when I did...because it sums up perfectly what I am trying to say...
"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.
" Wait, they are saying Bin Laden is dead", he said.
At first I didn't believe it. I frantically searched for the remote knowing full well that there would be a Special Report and interruption of regularly scheduled programming. When I turned on the TV it was all over every station. Osama Bin Laden is dead. I admit, I did feel a surge of joy, I felt a moment of happiness...well, to be honest it was longer than a moment. I watched the president speak, and applauded loudly when he emphasized that we are not at war with Islam, and that Osama was not a Muslim leader, but rather a mass murderer of Muslims. I felt tears for the 9/11 victims, and when they showed yet again the planes crashing into those towers, my stomach, as always, turned and my heart sank.
I know I am going to get a lot of poo for saying this but I am going to say it. I did not like seeing people celebrating so happily. I know he was a bad man. I know the world is a better place without him. but I do not feel like celebrating and rejoicing is human of me. It sucks that ANY of this has happened. I think a more appropriate response would have been to act a little more dignified about it. How...I don't know, but some of the things I saw when watching the people celebrate just didn't feel right to me. I would say the same for the celebration of the death of anybody. A quote I have been seeing pop up all day struck me in the heart when I did...because it sums up perfectly what I am trying to say...
"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.
I, too, momentarily rejoiced when we watched the news last night. I'm glad that some of the 9/11 victims families and other terrorist victims maybe got some closure out of this, but yes, in retrospect, it seems totally morbid to be so happy over someone getting taken out. On the other hand, the people that were in front of the white house carrying on at midnight were a bunch of college kids from Georgetown (people our age would not have gone out to party in the streets at that hour anyway). Remember the time there was a riot on 4th Ave when the Cats lost a championship? Even though we were nowhere near there we went and checked it out and only left because the swat team got there. We did some very dumb and impulsive stuff at that age too.
ReplyDeletedude uofa WON that night hipster dufus!
ReplyDeleteOh sorry, I forget because there were two different riots. One when they won and one when they lost. We don't really need an excuse to riot in Tucson but it helps.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Thank you for including the MLK quote; I've been seeing that pop up on Facebook since. We'll see what's in store now...
ReplyDelete