When I woke up this morning, I turned on the news to hear more about Bin Ladin's death. During the broadcast, there were scenes from the City of New York and Washington D.C. of people celebrating. My initial reaction to this was that I was somewhat confused. I thought maybe these were scenes from another event, I could not believe these were scenes from that night, while I was sleeping, celebrating Usama's death.
I think it is safe to say that this a highly unusual scene to see coming out of America. Never in my life have I witnessed such a large, sporadic demonstration of patriotism over the death of a single person. Initially, I was sceptical about this. And in my mind I was sad to see such happiness over the assassination of a man.
When my husband came home not long after I woke up, I told him I was not too sure, in fact I was cautious about the idea of celebrating this victory in such a fashion. But as I was taking to him about this, a revelation came over me. Perhaps some of these people where morbidly celebrating the assassination of Bin Ladin, but I think that this celebrating was so much more then that.
It is easy to see New York and Washington DC celebrating as we sit cozy on our couches here in Wisconsin. It is easy to judge their way of celebrating this victory. But let us not forget the thousands of lives that were lost for no reason. Let us not forget the feelings our country had that day of September 11, 2001... the feelings of, "where is the next plane going to hit?", "Are we not as strong as we thought?", "What will we become when this hell subsides?". Or how about those feelings of the ones waiting to hear a phone call letting them know their loved one is all right... but they were there for hours, days and weeks... now left with an empty spot at the table... that emptiness in their bed. Tell those people they should not be celebrating the death of the person responsible for their emptiness they feel every day... because it is not "American" it is not "humane".
For 9 1/2 years, they have been waiting to hear that America would fulfill the promise that there will be justice. For 9 1/2 years, this anticipation has been built up. I understand the assassination of UBL will not bring back their loved ones but everyone effected by the tragedy lead by UBL can say a prayer to their loved one that justice has been won and this man of evil will no longer cause another family to feel the emptiness that he left for thousands of people during his life of destruction.
I have always debated against the death penalty and quite frankly, I cannot believe this blog is coming from me. As a Christian I believe that our only judge of life and death is God. Only He should give and take away the life He has given us. What was done was done. And let those who are left with a life of emptiness release the emotion that comes with the justice that was given.
I think that we Americans are unique to the world. Yes, the media flashes clips of celebrating and chanting over a man's death. But I believe the heart of America is humane in the fact that we can both feel joy over UBL's death and have that feeling of humanity inside (the thought of, "is this the 'good' way to react?"). I think that as Americans, we should celebrate the fact that we genuinely have a good soul as a Nation.
It was easy for us (esp. in WI or other places on the Nation that were not directly threatened) to sit back and ask "why celebrate". I think it is okay to have that initial feeling of, "is this the right way to 'celebrate'?" I think the fact that a lot of people in our nation ask ourselves that, makes us stand out from the rest of the world and we should take pride in that. We should also take pride in our outstanding military for doing what they do to make sure the attacks are as far away from home as they could possibly be.
Yes, my initial thoughts were, "is this okay?" but I have no doubt in my mind that if I was in NYC or Washington DC when this news broke, I would have been right there celebrating in that crowd. There has not been one September 11th where I did not cry in remembrance of that tragic day. And as the years pass, I dont think there ever will be. What UBL did on 9/11/01 changed our world. Whether you feel like this does not effect you, it has and it does. Buy a car, house or plane ticket. Everything has changed. And now that UBL is dead, the world is a better and safer place without him.
We will NEVER forget. Have you?
God Bless our Nation, our Troops and our freedom!
