“In the face of a man’s death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred.” - The Vatican
Last night, the government announced to the world that the U.S. Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden. And most of the country broke into absolutely crazy celebration. At first, I got chills and my heart beat so fast. And then I teared up thinking of the quiet awesomeness of the moment. And then I jumped on the "GO AMURICA" train and I do understand and feel some of the excitement that was running rampant. I am relieved and even grateful that this man, who created such evil in the world, and caused so much death, is no longer alive to make pain. But it makes me really uncomfortable to see people- civilized, peaceable people- actually celebrating someone's death. It could be one thing to celebrate our gratitude, or the added safety we may have gained. But to actually use words like "joy" and "party" with someone's assassination? That makes us look pretty similar to those who celebrated the death of the 3000 who died September 11th?
Don't we owe more to those people than to degrade their memories with such ugly and base and empty emotions like revenge and hatred? We can celebrate their lives- and that is what makes us better humans than bin Laden was. The reason he killed our citizens was over ideology-- and to assume our ideology is better or more right than others is ridiculous. Trust me, people tell me that about Catholicism all the time. We are human- we don't know that what we believe is any more right. So what's "just" here?
His death was absolutely necessary and I'm incredibly proud of our country for its ability to protect us from the terror and evil around the world. Don't get me even a little wrong about that. I just also feel sad that we had to take a human life- that we were driven to end what should be sacred. That such a life was SO misguided and such religious dedication and fervor was wasted in degradation and disrespect for God's creation that bin Laden was responsible for.
That sounds like a somber responsibility of humanity to me. Not a birthday party. For me, its analogous almost to how 200 years ago, the 4th of July was a somber, scary, sad day for those men who believed their rights so violated that they had to cut ties with their homeland. Those men were not happy about what they did, but it was their responsibility to history.
This is absolutely not a judgment on those feeling other emotions. Just my attempt to evaluate and express my own. I'm reminded a little of Harry Potter's adventure against Voldemort, and how he learned that every time Voldemort killed, he lost a piece of his soul. I will not allow someone else to make me a murderer or a rejoicer in death and revenge. I hope that our respect for the sacredness and dignity of humanity is what makes us as Americans better than Osama bin Laden.
I finally got to reading this, and I'm so glad I did. I agree that we owe more to the lives of those who were lost on 9/11 and their families more than what our reaction gave them. We can be relieved that the world is rid of an evil person, but we cannot believe that that solves all of our problems.
ReplyDeleteI like your Harry Potter analogy, too.
Well said, Julie, thanks for sharing!