With increasing regularity, I find myself gleaning my breaking news from Twitter.
And Sunday was no exception. As is my habit, I got into my car after church and checked my phone for messages. I usually try not to pull up Twitter or Facebook at those times, because I'll end up sitting in my car laughing or pissed off about things that I read far longer than I should, and hey, that's time you don't get back.
But anyway, I broke my rule and popped up Twitter. And there it was.
Osama Bin Laden was dead.
"What???" I said aloud. "Daaamn." (Yes, I did mention just leaving church, but Christians aren't perfect any more than anyone else. But that's another topic for another blog post.)
I drove home with the radio on NPR, just trying to pick up tidbits of info. By the time I pulled into my garage, I was hearing news of the celebration gathering outside the White House and speculation over the details of Bin Laden's death.
At the time, I just couldn't believe what I was feeling - sadness, anger and dread. Sadness because people were celebrating the death of a person and anger that I felt that way - the bastard did plan the death of nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children. Once you're grown, a decade isn't a lot of time and memories of watching the plane hit that tower are still fresh in my mind today.
I also dread the retaliation that I suspect is waiting for U.S. as a whole and Obama as an individual.
And that started the roller coaster ride.
Now, let me take a tick to share with you a little something - I hate roller coasters. They're stupid and dangerous - like football - and they don't leave you with too much to show for the ride, unless you have a weak bladder or stomach. I respect other's rights to ride them, but I take a pass at every opportunity. So the past 48 hours have sucked for me as I straddled the fence between being glad that Bin Laden is gone and deeply mourning the celebrating that just seems like another symptom of a loss of value and respect for life.
Then there are the posts from both sides of the issue (celebration/mourning) that say that Christians shouldn't celebrate death and that the Bible says that the crowd celebrated David's killing of Goliath.
Up. Down. Around. Under. Through the tunnel. I had eggs this morning and until about 20 minutes ago, I was actually feeling physically nauseated about the discourse.
Until I saw this post from another Facebook friend.
"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."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Before reading this, I'd pretty much reached my saturation limit on King long ago. I begin dreading Black History Month weeks before Feb. 1 - usually about the time McDonald's cranks up its 365Black campaign and Budweiser pulls out its clip art of King to put in Ebony and Jet magazine so that blacks think they care. Again, another post for another time.
But like every true statement - spoken, written or otherwise - these words are ARE what they ARE. You can justify celebration of Bin Laden's death by saying he deserved it, and can even talk about biblical examples of similar reaction to the death of villains. But killing. Isn't. Right. Period. I won't become right just because popular opinion says it is.
Like india.arie says "You know the truth by the way it feels."
Thank goodness, this ride is over. I was more than ready to get off.
I agree to the fullest, no death should be celebrated no matter how bad that person was. Humans do not have the power to take someone's life. Americans are celebrating the fact that an enemy was slaughtered but are failing to realize that this could spark something much worse. I told my sister that I wish they never announced that they found him because I have feeling in my soul, that is telling me things are about to get even more derailed.
ReplyDeleteBecause art and poetry is how my mind works I have slowed down the internal roller coaster enough to produce the the following comment ... thanks again for creating this blog and topic of discussion.
ReplyDeleteDeath of Osama
By Timothy B. Wimbley
September 11th… the one we all know
Planes flew overhead and delivered a blow
Osama the head and the devil the tail
And thousands die fighting for life- tooth and nail
The news spread across the globe like fire
And fire spread across hearts in two forms of desire
As oversees some did cheer at the deaths that took place
As here we watched with anger, sadness and disgrace
360 is a circle and it turns round and round
As Osama now caught by death with a familiar sound
And cheers again this time from our side
Does that make the cheers right should we have so much pride
In taking a life should there be celebration
When in fact we all are from the human relation
And YES-JUSTICE IS DUE to those who deserve
But joy in death seems to me so absurd
Death should be met with respect, humility and grace
The Celebration of death sends anger a place
In others to grow just as it did
On September 11th …..
to both me and my kid
Which we had to cast out and allow God to free
Our minds of this anger to move on and to be
Now the flags wave and the cheers I still hear
From the past and the present and now I fear
That those who lack God to fight anger with love
Will use the visual of these celebrations to ignite a fire above
That which we have ever seen, they will use it as added fuel
To make the continuum circle bigger and increase this duel
of this war on a word( terrorism or drugs for that matter) which will never end
because war on words ……IT NEVER BEGAN!!!
It’s not the word we need war on it’s so many other things
It’s not a religion, or a race, or any one group of human beings
I stand to announce we are one people, race and earth
Strands in the web and we all move to death from birth
And what we do to the web we do to ourselves
IF we all begin to understand that we all drink from the same well
In perspective and relativity of the strands in the web
And both the spider and the fly become one common thread
And yet the war still goes on between predator and prey
But at least we begin to address it in the right way.
And let us not celebrate in the death of anyone anywhere
To sum it all up let me be clear…..
One Earth. One body. One life.
May 4, 2011
by the way i said art and poetry is... on purpose. My mind sees them as one ...lol
ReplyDelete