So...on this day in history:
- Much of the world found out about the suicide of Adolf Hitler
- We celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day for 2011
- George W. Bush gave his ill-fated "Mission Accomplished" speech...long before any real mission was accomplished
- Much of the world found out about the death of Osama bin Laden
Busy. Freaking. Day in history.
I am a mix of emotions right now, looking at that list. So much death, so much sadness, so many crimes against humanity mixed up in that list.
It seems almost criminal to celebrate, doesn't it?
But...there is reason to celebrate, right?
Hitler is dead. So that's good news. He was a bad guy. (Understatement of the year.)
The Jewish faith/religion/culture is NOT dead. Hitler didn't succeed.
The war in Iraq is kinda, sorta over, unless you're one of the troops still stationed there. For them, I imagine, it's still very much on.
And bin Laden is dead, and that in and of itself is a major victory for our country, for our President, and for those people still affected by the deaths of their loved ones in 2001. He deserved to die...I think...but I still can never wrap my head around the moral question of the death penalty...and bin Laden was a REALLY bad guy...so...
So, I don't know...the celebrating in the streets, the parties at Ground Zero and the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania...they strike me as in questionable taste perhaps? Much as I would love to see America rally around this news to come together again as a nation like we did in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, it makes me nervous to know that the images of people waving flags to celebrate a death are being flashed around the world today. Those people who have been indoctrinated to hate the West are getting tons more ammunition today. Retaliation is almost a sure thing, don't you think?
It scares me.
But then...the country celebrated when Hitler died, right? V-E day came quickly thereafter, as the upper echelons of the Nazi dictatorship were extinguished in a single night. We celebrated a death then, and all that happened after was another victory several months later. But we were a superpower then...are we a superpower now?
So maybe it's ok to celebrate? I don't know, it makes me uncomfortable. In my head, I'm waving a flag, but I'm also concerned about the message we're sending to a certain part of the world. Instead of extending a hand and saying, "OK, now that he's gone let's try to move forward productively," we're sort of dancing and laughing and saying, "We got you, SUCKERS!"
So maybe it's not ok?
Or maybe it doesn't matter what I think, since images of the Twin Towers on fire have dredged up an awful lot of terrible memories for me today. I cried when Charles told me about bin Laden this morning. So maybe I should just sit quietly and think about a boy I used to know, with red hair, lots of freckles, and one of the friendliest smiles I've ever seen. If there's a Heaven, I doubt he's dancing today...I doubt residents of Heaven have much time for vengeance and retribution...but I hope his family has a little bit of an easier time sleeping from here forward. Now that the man responsible for their boy's death is gone.
I am a mix of emotions right now, looking at that list. So much death, so much sadness, so many crimes against humanity mixed up in that list.
It seems almost criminal to celebrate, doesn't it?
But...there is reason to celebrate, right?
Hitler is dead. So that's good news. He was a bad guy. (Understatement of the year.)
The Jewish faith/religion/culture is NOT dead. Hitler didn't succeed.
The war in Iraq is kinda, sorta over, unless you're one of the troops still stationed there. For them, I imagine, it's still very much on.
And bin Laden is dead, and that in and of itself is a major victory for our country, for our President, and for those people still affected by the deaths of their loved ones in 2001. He deserved to die...I think...but I still can never wrap my head around the moral question of the death penalty...and bin Laden was a REALLY bad guy...so...
So, I don't know...the celebrating in the streets, the parties at Ground Zero and the Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania...they strike me as in questionable taste perhaps? Much as I would love to see America rally around this news to come together again as a nation like we did in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, it makes me nervous to know that the images of people waving flags to celebrate a death are being flashed around the world today. Those people who have been indoctrinated to hate the West are getting tons more ammunition today. Retaliation is almost a sure thing, don't you think?
It scares me.
But then...the country celebrated when Hitler died, right? V-E day came quickly thereafter, as the upper echelons of the Nazi dictatorship were extinguished in a single night. We celebrated a death then, and all that happened after was another victory several months later. But we were a superpower then...are we a superpower now?
So maybe it's ok to celebrate? I don't know, it makes me uncomfortable. In my head, I'm waving a flag, but I'm also concerned about the message we're sending to a certain part of the world. Instead of extending a hand and saying, "OK, now that he's gone let's try to move forward productively," we're sort of dancing and laughing and saying, "We got you, SUCKERS!"
So maybe it's not ok?
Or maybe it doesn't matter what I think, since images of the Twin Towers on fire have dredged up an awful lot of terrible memories for me today. I cried when Charles told me about bin Laden this morning. So maybe I should just sit quietly and think about a boy I used to know, with red hair, lots of freckles, and one of the friendliest smiles I've ever seen. If there's a Heaven, I doubt he's dancing today...I doubt residents of Heaven have much time for vengeance and retribution...but I hope his family has a little bit of an easier time sleeping from here forward. Now that the man responsible for their boy's death is gone.
No comments:
Post a Comment