Sunday, May 01, 2011

Ding, dong Bin Laden's dead

Andrew, this is for you...since it's 4:00 AM in Ghana...and I just experienced history without you.

(Hahahahaha; it hurts, doesn't it?)

Wake up, sleepy head! Rub your eyes, get out of bed!
Wake up, Bin Laden now is dead! 
He's gone where the terrorists go,
Below, below, below. Yo-ho! 
Let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong, the merry-oh. Sing it high. Sing it low.
Let them know, Bin Laden now is dead!

As Pres'dent of the States United, in the White House in the land DC,
I say to you, most regally,
And we've even verified it legally, to see...

To see?

That he...

That he?

Is morally, ethic'lly, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead.
His DNA, I must aver, was taken and accounted for
Then this is a day that "justice has been done" for all Americans and their descendants, if any.

Yes, let the joyous news be spread! The wicked Bin Laden at last is dead!

Today, like most days, is a historic day, and not only because it marks the anniversary of the announcement of 
Hitler's death, either. This day is newly historic because it now also marks the death of Osama Bin Laden. I'm not sure how I feel about this because celebrating in the streets streaming the American flag behind me and shouting "USA! USA! USA!" is not how I roll. Instead I feel more serious than anything. I just feel that dancing on anyone's grave, so to speak, is disrespectful, no matter how horrible they were in this life. 

But if that's how you want to celebrate, go for it. It's a free country. Neat, huh?

That's not to say that I am not pleased that "justice has been done" in regards to Bin Laden. However, Mark Twain summarized my feelings quite well when he said, "I have never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure."

I'm not sure how optimistic to be regarding how this will affect the War on Terror but hopefully it will be a monumental stepping stone on the path to peace. I want to know what's next because we may have won this battle but the war is, literally, far from over.

I did appreciate how President Obama pointed out, once again, that this war has been waged against terrorism and not against Islam. Bin Laden was not a model Muslim; he was an embarrassment to many (like, his family disowned him and his country revoked his citizenship, so there's that bit of evidence if you don't believe me) and does not at all represent what Islam stands for. 

Obviously I've stopped talking to Andrew and have turned my attention to the many people I see hating on the Middle East all the time. It's hard for me to witness that because the Middle East is dear to my heart. My Muslim friends are dear to my heart and it's just not fair they get a bad rap simply because some guy, who so obviously was a little tetched in the head, happened to claim to be a Muslim.

Anyway, hopefully this will serve to unify our country a little bit and will bring some feeling of peace.

It's still so weird to say "our country" and have it mean America but, I mean, I am an American, I suppose, regardless of where I was born and raised. I've been in America for eleven years, give or take (depending on how you count the time that I haven't actually been living here, which is, you know, a few years), and we've been at war with terror for ten of those years so that's basically forever, at least as my life in America is concerned. It's nice to see that might actually be making some progress, and perhaps this will serve to unify the country a bit. We can't really have peace in the world without peace in America since we're, you know, part of the world.

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