"Patriotic" Americans in Kansas
After I heard Osama Bin Laden was dead, I had a feelings of relief, not euphoria. My initial thoughts were disbelief. My second thought was that now we can perhaps finally set aside our national craving to mete out revenge for the September 11th attacks. Apparently not. When Osama Bin Laden's death was announced, raucous crowds filled streets of across America. Despite the fact that Bin Laden committed truly despicable atrocities, it feels wrong that we as a people are collectively celebrating the demise of a human being. Why can't we simply acknowledge that the retribution has happened, and put this issue behind us? Instead, it's almost as if there is an urge to cede the last sliver of moral high ground not eroded by our massacre of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq with unmanned drones, cluster bombs, and the like. Right now, indiscriminate flag-waving doesn't do us any good. And while I don't particularly wish that we hadn't killed Bin Laden, I'm not happy about it, either. Above all, I certainly don't sympathize with the angry sentiments of those such as Mike Huckabee, who referred to Osama as burning in hell and said that all who wish the US ill must be killed to achieve true justice. Justice is fairness; it's not destroying enemies of the state. Terrorism can never be truly exterminated, and at some point, we'll need a reconciliation between cultures. That won't happen as long as we keep depicting a gray situation as a black and white set of facts. So, while I am content that we have finally found who we were looking for, I'm largely disappointed in America's reaction.
