Emphasis on the exclamation point.
When the news of the death of the former leader of Al-Qaeda hit the US, people celebrated. People came out in droves in Times Square and in front of the White House to rejoice in the death of America’s Most Wanted.
But not me.
While seemingly everyone patriotically praised the actions of the President and the Navy Seals who executed a perfect (execution?) mission, I was left with furrowed brows and a frown. “Osama Bin Laden is dead!” people would tell me. Yes. Yes he is… “Well, aren’t you happy!? Justice has been served!”
Has it?
I think my biggest mistake the following day was made at work when a very large and outspoken transplanted Texan (who also happens to be ex-military) came into my office to cheerfully tell me the news. “They killed the bastard! Bin Laden got what was coming to him!”
To which I replied: “I feel sorry for his family.”
Can you hear the needle scratch across the record as the whole world seemed to stop and look at me with a raised eyebrow? Can you hear the crickets? Can you picture the throbbing vein in Mr. Texas’ forehead as he tried to understand my words?
“What?”
“I said, I feel sorry for his family.” Figuring this gave me a moment to elaborate, I tried to explain myself. “I mean, no matter how bad a person is, no matter what they’ve done, they still have people who care about them.”
Immediately, I was given an earful about exactly how I was wrong… and how my simple statement about empathy for Bin Laden’s family was completely unpatriotic. How caring about how the family of a terrorist felt cheapened how the family of a victim of the terrorist attacks felt. I didn’t think so, but when a man who towers over you by at least a foot is telling you how wrong you are, you just listen.
However… when he was done, I stuck to my guns. “Yes, I understand that the families of the victims of 9/11 lost someone they care about too. I understand that grief. I do. But a person is a person… and regardless of what they’ve done, whether they deserve death in your eyes or not, they have people who care about them… people who will grieve… people who will miss them… I feel bad for THEM.”
Still, he wouldn’t hear it. I lost a lot of his respect that day, and while that bothered me, I still honestly firmly believe what I believe.
I will never celebrate a man’s death.
Let me repeat that: I will NEVER celebrate a man’s death.
I’m not normally very politically minded. I’m neither a Republican nor am I a Democrat. I don’t feel I identify well with any political party. There’s too much bickering and arguing and finger-pointing and mudslinging for me to care too much about politics. I don’t want to associate myself with either side. I believe what I believe and it doesn’t fit nicely into somebody else’s box. If I had to claim anything, I would claim that I am a Humanist. I’ll have to expound further on what this means to me in a different blog entry, however, for sake of argument, that is what I will claim for now. I will not hold your opinions against you because that is the beauty of this country: We are all entitled to our own opinions… whether those opinions be religious or political in nature, we are free to have them. We are free to express them. I am free to write what I believe, and you are free to stop reading if you’d like. It’s a lovely thing.
However… with all that said… This country makes me so sad.
Is it for us to judge? Boiling everything down, simplifying everything, at the very root of it all, Osama Bin Laden thought that his actions were right for his people. His opinions and beliefs conflicted with our own. I’m not saying he was right. In fact, he was very very wrong, as far as I’m concerned… but do I think he was wrong because he disliked our government? No. That was his opinion. Where he crossed the line into the unforgivable is when he started killing people.
In my opinion, humble as it is, death is never the answer. Never.
Never.
Do I think that the victims of 9/11 deserved justice for their untimely deaths? Of course. Do I think that it is ours as humans to dole out? No.
Death begets death.
Yesterday, they executed Troy Davis. Did he deserve it? In my opinion, No. It has nothing to do with guilt or innocence to me. It has nothing to do with race. It has nothing to do with any of the stuff that people are outraged about. It has to do with the fact that, like you or me, Troy Davis was a PERSON. Death is death and death is forever. Forever. It is a concept that I don’t think people really understand. Forever is forever. There is no taking it back.
Why was he executed? Because we, as a people (a democratic country, a system of laws), determined that it should be so. An eye for an eye. Death penalty for murder.
But isn’t the death penalty, in and of itself, murder too?
So, if Troy Davis or any of the 9,722 people who were sentenced to death between 1970 and 2009 deserved to die because they were murderers, shouldn’t the people who flip the switch or press the button to preform the execution also be executed? And so on and so on… an eye for an eye? Where does it stop?
Who are we to say that our lives are any more important than anyone else’s? Throwing religion aside completely, we were all created the same way. At the heart of it all, we all started as a sperm and an egg. Regardless of your religious beliefs, regardless of your political beliefs, regardless of your opinions, your sexual orientation, your race… we all have one thing in common.
We are all human.
And that is the most beautiful thing of all.
Why can’t we recognize the humanity in each other and make decisions outside the boxes designated by religion and politics?
Why can’t we all just get along?
