One more human dead; cause for celebration?

[janestarz]

Yesterdaymorning I woke up to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed. At first, I felt relief and elation, followed quickly by a rational fear of retribution.

At work, I browsed several news sites and another emotion surfaced: grief^*.

Another human is dead. And people feel the need to celebrate because someone died. The jubilant crowds at the White house, Ground Zero...

I understand that Osama bin Laden was a the personification of a faceless evil for many. He was a person to blame for losing loved ones. I'm not saying he was a good person, because for most of the people of the world, he wasn't. We all just saw the terrorist side of him, the radical extremist (dare I say it) and as such, it is a good thing he was killed.

But my feelings in this matter are a lot more complicated. If you strip away everything, and look at the fact that another human being has died and other human beings are celebrating because he died...it just feels wrong. And I couldn't understand why I needed to look at this like this.

This morning I found this blog: Osama bin Laden is dead, one buddhist's response
It helped me understand a bit better where my feelings of grief came from.

I will quote:

One of us is gone, one apparently horrific, terrible, vicious one of us…is gone. I don’t feel regret for him or about this. I’m regretful for the rest of us who are now left thinking that this is a cause for celebration. It is not. It is a cause for sorrow at our continued inability to realize that there is no such thing as us and them; that whatever we do to cause harm to one will harm us all.

If we only could cultivate love, and spread it across the world, wouldn't it make it a better place?

-----
*) Before you run off on a tantrum, may I please point out what Ursula Vernon wrote? "...no matter how you feel about the whole issue, anybody who is busy yelling at other people for their reactions needs to shut t’hell up and write fifty times on the chalkboard I will not shame people because their reactions to large and emotional events are different than mine."

Comments

[peacockdress.livejournal.com]

Agreed. There is an important difference between achieving peace and "winning".

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

The families of the victims of this war are allowed to be relieved. And that means people on both sides.

Killing people is just that: killing people. Nobody wins when somebody dies. Hatred will beget hatred.