Well, I wasn't going to even talk about Osama biting the dust, but it seems like everyone is doing it, so I'll throw in my two cents. When I was a Sophomore in highschool, I came to school to find all televisions tuned to a news station. In each class I attended, the teacher asked if we should simply watch the events of 9/11 unfold, or if we should continue with the lesson plan as scheduled, to prove that we would not allow a terrorist attack to frighten us out of our routine, and as a sign of respect for those who lost their lives - that we would not let terrorists use their deaths to control what we think and do.
I think that day probably affected everyone to some degree - personally, I've always wondered how much of an effect it really had on me - New York was so far away, and those events just seemed like they were coming from another world - and shit, I was 16, and had lots of other teenage things on my mind.
Regardless of what I felt then, I think that the attack on 9/11 did have an effect on me - I felt that effect resonate when I visited the site of the WTC almost ten years after the attack to find that it was still deeply ingrained in the minds of New Yorkers, and other Americans who came to see the carnage - wrapped up in a new construction site, and pay homage to the dead, and try to achieve some sense of closure. Regarding 9/11, I am hesitant to talk about it, because I feel strongly that I should not co-opt the real tragedy of those who lost loved ones, however, I do feel a great deal of sympathy for those affected, and it that sense, it does effect me.
And now, I find that the perpetrator of these events has been killed, of all ways, in a gun-battle in a house. What am I supposed to feel? Relief? Elation? Anger? I don't know that killing him has changed anything. Does his death really provide closure? It does not bring back anyone who has been killed by his machinations. I've seen a whole host of reactions, and funny enough, I had a strong reaction to either side, there seems to be two camps - those who are happy bin Laden is dead, and those who feel its wrong to celebrate killing, period. It bothered me to see people celebrating his death, but it also really bothered me when people got up on soap-boxes and voiced their objections to people celebrating his death - it seems there is no winning side.
Bin Laden was more than a man - he had become a symbol of evil in the minds of many people, he lived free, exulting in his atrocious crime and the pain that he had caused Americans. His single action has affected the way that we travel, it has for better or for worse, left a very dark mark on everyone - think of how things were before 9/11, and how they are now. Is it so strange that people might be elated at his death? Do we even have the right to try an 'educate them' regarding the proper way to react? Conversely, why should we celebrate death - doing so is at least morbid, and at worst, treading dangerously close to the idea that we have the right to kill who ever we deem evil.
I suppose that the death of one person is meaningless compared to the deaths of the thousands of people who perished in the WTC Towers. Part of me, the angry part, wants to see bin Laden put on trial for all of his sins, to see remorse flood his eyes when he realizes how much pain and suffering he inflicted, to see him relive the horrors that he inflicted and understand the meaning of his actions. The angry part of me feels like just blowing the guy away robs our 'right' to justice.
But, the logical side of me wonders if there is any way that resolution can happen involving bin Laden. What happened was so horrific, its almost too much to even want to deal with the man. Its as though his action severed him from being human in my mind - its inconceivable for me to imagine what I would have to become in order to do what he did - it was monstrous. How do you deal with a monster? A real monster - it just seems like the sort of thing where one's gut reaction is to just push it away, lock it in a cell where he will be forgotten.
Justice is an extremely slippery concept for me to grasp. I don't think its ever simple. I think that sometimes, a hurt is deep, and there isn't a single simple action that will make it go away. And, there isn't a way to return to how things were before - you just can't. You have to let go of what once was, and try to find some way of moving ahead, positively and resolutely, into the future.
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