Cause for Celebration

I had made the decision not to post anything in response to the celebratory reactions that occurred across the country when Osama Bin Laden was killed. Part of that decision was motivated by fear- I know many who would not react kindly to my saying I was saddened by the cheers that followed the news. Another motivator was guilt- there is definitely a part of me that is relieved that such an evil being is no longer a part of this world. Yet another reason not to post anything was respect- others have been able to say precisely what I am thinking and feeling in much more eloquent language than I could ever use, and I think their voices should be recognized. For a prime example, see http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pamela-gerloff/the-psychology-of-revenge_b_856184.html?ref=fb&src=sp. But after hearing that people were posting pictures of his body on Facebook, I could not keep my mouth shut any longer. My apologies if I sound redundant, but the simple turth is that this message is worth repeating. This so-called “celebration” is not something in which we should engage- it is beneath our capability to love, it is offensive to human dignity, and it demeans anything that is actually worth celebrating.

Nobody is denying that Bin Laden was an evil man. He was the leader of an organization that killed thousands of people, out of a claim that he was doing it for God. He shattered so many lives, he created an atmosphere of fear and hatred, and he felt no remorse for his actions. He turned a peaceful religion into a weapon, and used it as his justification for murder. He spread a message of hate and refused to compromise on his twisted ideals. He was evil.

But he was human.

I cannot honestly say that I did not want him dead. Hatred is a powerful force, and revenge is a tempting path. I wanted him to pay for the immeasurable suffering that he had caused in the past, and any pain that he continued to bring and threaten. Like everyone else, I wanted justice. I wanted him to feel every ounce of the pain he had brought into the world with his hate. Like many others, a part of me wanted revenge. A part of me wanted him dead.

When the news broke that US forces had killed Osama Bin Laden, I reacted the same way many others did- I was in a state of shock. I had gotten so used to his being “unfindable,” that I had since lost any expectation that we would ever bring him to justice. But once the shock subsided, I started to wonder “What next? How does this change anything?” Sure, he was a public figure, an indisputable icon for the concepts of hatred and murder. But did his death really change anything? Aren’t we still at war? Aren’t there still soldiers and civilians dying every day? Did us killing a killer really make the world a more beautiful place?

It is absolutely true that his death may have brought closure to many who had lost loved ones in the attacks on September 11^th. They know he is gone; they know he cannot order anymore killing, that he cannot cause any new pain. And closure is something that we can celebrate. Closure is something to smile about, something to cheer about. Those of us who may not have lost loved ones in the attacks but were hurt in other ways can also find some closure. There is one less person spreading a pervasive message of hate, one less person dampening our hopes for a peaceful world. We SHOULD celebrate a reduction of hatred. But we should not celebrate the taking of a human life, no matter how evil it might be.

Cheering at death is not the way we encourage change, it is not a method for bringing about peace. Must we mourn the end of this evil life? No. But we must recognize that this evil was stopped using the very same tools this evil had used. And by reacting to Bin Laden’s death in the same way that he reacted to the deaths of those who were killed on his orders, we continue down the same hatred-inducing path. By celebrating our own act of killing, we destroy any opportunity for us to become leaders in love. Instead of showing regret for taking a human life we are taking pride in the fact that we are killers. By celebrating his death, we show ourselves to be a vengeful nation, not one of compassion and understanding.

The celebration does not need to end. But its basis needs to be changed. We should never celebrate the taking of human life. We should strive for peaceful solutions, for opportunities to show compassion. We have that capability, and we need to use our incredible power to spread a message of love, not hate. So if we want to cheer, let us cheer. But not for death. To borrow from the above-linked blog:

‎"One aspect of being human is our ability to choose our own behavior; more specifically, our capacity to return good for evil, love for hate, dignity for indignity."