Evolution of Thought

It started around nine o'clock on Sunday May 1st. President Obama was going to make an address of some sort, eventually it was leaked that it would be about Osama bin Laden. Even more to the point, as time went on, it was that Osama bin Laden had been killed. My initial reaction was one of joy. No lie. I was happy he was dead, and borderline ecstatic about it all. Some news correspondent brought up that it was eight years to the day that George W. Bush waddled across the deck of an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner waving in the background. I, of course, trailed off in my mind about how much I hate George W. Bush.

Then I come back to the newscast. I'm still excited that this Boogieman of the last ten years is dead. For so long he had been the embodiment of the most horrific act on American soil, and for all those alive after September 11th, pure evil incarnate. I can understand the cathartic release those that lost loved ones, friends, family members, or coworkers in the attacks. It must be the same for those that know someone that have lost their lives, been injured, or are still serving overseas in the multiple wars we, the American "we", continue to wage. America has served up a huge heaping tablespoon of retribution for all those involved since September 11th.

In the flurry of modern day social media the next hours were bombarded with words like, "RIP Mother Fucker" "Rot in hell Bin Laden" and a personal favorite "Osama bin Laden Hide and Seek World Champion 2001-2011." Pictures, I can only assumed photo-shopped, of a bloodied bin Laden started cropping up and another one with The Statue of Liberty holding bin Laden's head instead of carrying a torch. Crowds began gathering in front of the White House and at Ground Zero. People at baseball and basketball games joined in with the chants and cheers of a victorious America. Chants of "USA, USA, USA" and the singing of the National Anthem broke out across America.

President Obama confirmed the news leaks and reports that Osama bin Laden had been killed. So there we have it. A country rejoices in the death of one man. A man that plotted in the deaths of thousands on a single day and even more since then. In the modern age, wars have always been against a target, normally a country or faction contain within the borders of a country. America has made bin Laden the target. But terrorism, or even terrorists, don't belong to a singular country. Terror is a feeling. Killing one man will not bring an end to these wars or the threat of another attack. But that isn't the point. The point comes when I wake up in the morning.

I read an actual headline taking up a majority of the front page reading "ROT IN HELL" placed over a photo of Osama bin Laden. I open my computer and it hits me.

And I mean really hits me, I'm reading this as someone's status on Facebook.

"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.

The "hit" portion of that is what alcoholics call a "moment of clarity." For the better part of the past evening and still continuing through the morning, America has been celebrating the death of a man. Evil, yes. A single man that served as the head of a terrorist organization that have committed horrible attacks against our country, yes. If your memory banks are up for it, try and recall how you felt on September 11th. You've just witness passenger airplanes flown into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and one downed in the wooded fields of Pennsylvania. Then news footage of radical Muslims is broadcast as they cheer in the streets at footage and reports of the attacks; they burn America flags. They have killed thousands of people, and... and they rejoice. Chants, cheers, and singing break out. The aftermath of September 11th saw the American people swell with nationalism and wage war against an entity, that entity had a face in Osama bin Laden. But the real fact that I seem to be lost in is our reaction to the news. We rejoice just as those who struck out against us did. If he had died on American soil would we have dragged him through the streets cheering as his beaten and dismembered body flopped behind the masses like they did to journalists, soldiers, or other victims over the years?

I'm not sure if it would be better stated as hypocrisy or irony when thinking of our American ideals, but I am left thinking of the last line of George Orwell's Animal Farm:

"Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Barbarians, heathens, terrorists, or whatever label, we, as a people, media, or country can give them seems fitting after the atrocities we have witnessed. Yet, here we are ten years later, we've all shed tears over loved ones, claimed pride of their sacrifice and service to the cause, and now, finally, we all have rejoiced in the death of the enemy. Publicly and proudly.