Death and Celebration

The death of Osama Bin Laden is still reasonably fresh on our minds. When the news hit that night ... a wave of emotion came over me. There was jubilation mixed with a sigh of relief mixed with a sense of justice prevailing over the evil of mankind. Footage set forth an array of jubilation, disbelief and utter joy -- that one of the chief architects of the tragedy of September 11th, finally met his own demise at the hand of U.S. forces.

The "mission" that we have been sold on since George Bush signed off on orders to "hunt" for Bin Laden ... has finally reached its conclusion.

Those who say that we're safer - are the same ones that believed that we could not be attacked on our own soil. We're not safer, nor will we be. Terrorists continue to terrorize because they can.

There are those that have a problem with the celebration of Bin Laden's death. When the news came late on May 1st ... and partying took to the streets - in pure elation that Bin Laden was finally dead. On the surface, I'm okay with that - because, let's face it: over 2,998 people died ... it's hard not to feel vindicated that our country was violated on the September morning.

There are those that say that celebrating brings us in line and "no better" than our enemy who constantly burns our flag and yells "death to America!" That's a fair point ... to a degree ... but when we're unprovoked as 9/11 was - it's hard to control one's emotion when you're kicked in the groin. The pacifist welcomes another kick ... while the rest of the country sought resolve and closure.

There are those that say that celebrating the death of another is wrong. Again - I think that's a fair point to a degree. Debating the veracity of vigilante justice is not a new concept. "An eye for an eye" - is one of the oldest precepts we've all heard about. Let's not forget that Bin Laden took great pleasure in the death of Americans. He wouldn't turn down an opportunity to blow something up and take out any number of us. "Death to America!" .... remember?

Merely turning the other cheek isn't going to wash. Not when one side of that cheek was bloodied so horribly -- almost 3000 people lost their lives. An action of that sort clearly crosses that line and then some. Even the pacifist would agree that killing that many people doesn't give you the benefit of a "free pass."

Let's face it. The world is a better place without Bin Laden in it. Should he have had his day in court like Saddam did -- I'm not sure. Saddam's trial was nothing short of a circus. I think there are evil people in the world that don't deserve to be in the gene pool. Mass murderers and those that incite violence that lead others to commit heinous, massive acts of violence ... needn't be in our population.

There's a lot of problems with a lot of things in the world. There's a lot of corporate crime across the globe fixated on screwing the next guy ... that don't get prosecuted, investigated or even compared to the likes of Bin Laden or Saddam. Yet they are complicit in their own crimes - sliding through the cracks while politicians continually prop those cracks open. Corporate crime has even larger indelible marks in today's society that affect the price of our gas and the insurance premiums we pay.

It's a crock to say it's wrong to celebrate Bin Laden's death when we're all complicit in one form or another - or perpetuating the corporate fraud that continues to displace families and widen the gaps between the rich and poor. It's disingenuous to decry one moral turpitude -- while advocating in favor of another.

If celebrating Bin Laden's death is an exercise of depreciating morality -- then take a long hard look at the reality of life happening everyday ... through everyone. Holding a flawed sense of idealism in a heavily flawed world invites us all to take responsibility and accountability for ourselves ... a notion unfamiliar by most in today's "every man, woman and child for themselves" political culture.

Piety doesn't trump reality. We can all hold true to our idealistic values as long as we can ... but in the end - your neighbor is still going to try to find a way to screw you ... we just ended up screwing him back.

That's just life.