A Different Perspective

So today it was announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed in a shootout with US troops.  People have been popping champagne corks and dancing in the streets ever since.

Am I the only one who's disturbed by all this?

Actually, I'm not the only one...but I certainly seem to be one of the minority.  While I realize that Osama Bin Laden was an absolutely horrible person who did horrible things, I just can't bring myself to celebrate someone's death.  Because, "we" may have killed a terrorist...but we also killed a human being.

It's very hard to put into words the emotions I'm feeling right now.  I suppose you could summarize them with the word "sickened."  I see news footage of crowds dancing in the streets and waving the American flag, celebrating the fact that our country killed somebody...I see Facebook statuses echoing the cheers going on in those streets...I hear news anchors say this is a great day for all Americans, and I disagree.  

I find it all to be rather barbaric.

Yes, Osama Bin Laden was the worst kind of man.  The torturous things that he did to so many people, the pain he caused, cannot be overstated.  I understand that in the twisted world we all live in, his murder may very well be an unavoidable event, a lesser evil committed with the intent of preventing greater evils of which he was capable of inflicting.

Oh, did I startle you with the word "murder" a second ago?

That's what really happened: "we" Americans murdered someone.  In fact, "we" Americans have murdered a lot of people over the past 235 years.  This isn't some superhero comic where we vanquished the bad guy.  No...what everyone's celebrating is murder.

The celebrated theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonheoffer was killed in the Nazi death camps for his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler.  Bonheoffer had come to view his pacifist stance as a cowardly way of standing back and hoping other people would deal withe the horrible reality and difficult moral problems that faced the world during his life.  It is for this reason that he entered into a plot to kill Hitler; to prevent the deaths of thousands from coming from the hand of one man.  But Bonheoffer never viewed this action as "justified;" he recognized that doing evil against a greater evil is still evil.

The way that America (and indeed, the whole world) has come to view certain people's deaths as "justified" is a startling reminder of just how messed up our world really is.  Osama Bin Laden's death should not be celebrated like a football victory; it should be noted with solemnity, with full acknowledgement of the reasons why it was carried out and with full acknowledgement of the horridness of the situation that caused it: revenge upon revenge upon revenge.  Hatred upon hatred upon hatred.  

When I see the celebrations of Bin Laden's death, I don't see righteous patriotism.  I see bloodthirstiness.  I see crowds of people who have been persuaded into thinking that the "we" vs "them" mentality that manifests itself in every war this world has ever seen is somehow normal and good, because somehow "we" are always on the "right" side.  The fanatical celebration of one man's murder is revealing of the capacity we all have for wanting another human being dead...it reveals that we're not as good as we pretend to be.  It reveals in us the same murderous spark that was ignited in Osama Bin Laden.  It reveals our capacity for evil.

What is "good" is not a repetitive recycling of the hatred that Osama Bin Laden has shown in the world, not a die-hard thirst for revenge or a corrupted "patriotism" that makes us "victorious" in the never-ending cycle of evil in the world.  The only source of true goodness is radical love for all people.  The sort of love that aches unceasingly for Osama Bin Laden's victims while remaining heartbroken for Bin Laden himself - heartbroken that this man was somehow driven to cruelty, somehow corrupted in such a way that he not only inflicted enormous pain upon others, but that his corruption ultimately led to his own demise.  Heartbroken, that another soul was lost in a world that is crying out for healing while plunging ever further into darkness.

For many Americans living in our time, Osama Bin Laden was the face of evil incarnate.  The face of evil.  But evil will continue to exist beyond Bin Laden's death.  Yes, evil will go on in the world, with the same amount of force as it always has.  Evil was not eradicated in the murder of Osama Bin Laden, and it will never be eradicated in the circle of hatred that continues to pervade the world.  Evil will only be eradicated when it is confronted with radical love and compassion.  Evil will only be eradicated when the difference between "us" and "them" ceases to exist.

Evil will only be eradicated when we are heartbroken by the deaths of the Osama Bin Laden's of the world.